Chloe Casey and the Descendants
by Chloe Casey
Summary: One man was terrified of the future. One man would do anything to keep the future quiet. That man was the Minister for Magic. And this man decreed that anyone with the ability to see the times ahead would be punished by death. For decades now, the whole world has been engulfed in fear of Seers. But only one person can find the answers and set things right. Her name is Chloe Casey.
1. Over the River and Through the Woods

**A/N:**

Hey, thanks for coming and reading this. The Chloe Casey series (Yes, there is more than one, so far, and yes, I named my profile after the main character because I have gone so many places with her) was my first set of books I _ever _wrote. Since I was eleven, I have been writing and rewriting and trying to get the books into some sort of final copy. Because I have multiple books in this series, I will be putting all of them in this file. Below is the summary for this book:

_Chloe Casey is a Diviner, someone who can see into the future. That being said, her existence, just like all other Diviners, is against the law. Her first year at Hogwarts is spotted with reminders of her unpleasant past, the possibilities of what could happen should anyone find out who she really is, and attempts at her life from an old family enemy._

Thanks again,

Chloe Casey

**_PLEASE REVIEW!_**

* * *

Chloe Casey and the Descendants in the Lies Unfurled

Chapter One

It was hard getting to sleep. I had no idea why, but as I twisted and turned on my bed, I found myself wide awake. Turning again to face my door, I heard someone pounding on the wall in the room next to me.

"Go to sleep, Chloe!" someone shouted through the wall.

I sighed and sat up, rubbing my face. Life at Wool's Orphanage wasn't the best. At least, not for me. I had practically been outcasted by everyone else in the orphanage. They found me odd and often called me a freak. I didn't understand any of their reasoning for casting me out, and I didn't really care.

The door to my room opened up. I couldn't tell who it was due to not having my glasses on, but I could tell that it was one of the Madams, one of the adults who "took care" of everyone at the orphanage. All of the Madams hated me as much as the kids, all except one of them. But Madam Kate hadn't been in the orphanage for three torturous days.

"Chloe, you need to go to bed," the Madam whispered.

"I'm trying to," I muttered, "I just can't."

"Well, try harder," she hissed, "Now, go to bed!"

As she closed the door, I fell back against my bed. It took a good few hours for the darkness of night to lull me to sleep. But something was wrong, I knew it even as I began dreaming of a house on the side of a small dirt road. Inside the house, I was trying to get to sleep in a small crib meant for a two year old. Shouting, however, was getting in the way of my sleeping. On unsteady legs, I stood up, seeing my parents – who were standing in front of my crib – and a lady that looked oddly familiar. All of them had stick-like objects in their hands, but that wasn't all too new for me; my parents always carried them around the house.

"Mamma?"

They all quieted down – which was fine by me. I was used to the quiet after a whole year of no one coming in or out of the house besides my mum and dad. My mum turned around almost instantly, stroking my hair comfortingly. In that same instant, the door was flung open again. A girl was standing in front of the door, right behind the intruder. My mother turned to look at the newcomer, and she gasped slightly. Something about the girl shocked her. She turned back towards me as the two strangers began shouting and fighting with each other. Several sparks went flying from the two sticks the strangers held. Then there was a flash of light.

When I opened my eyes, I was lying on the ground, flames licking the edges of a near perfect circle of undamaged ground around me. Soon, the flames died out, making everything around me pitch black. I sat up, wrapping my arms around my legs as the cold wind bit my skin. I didn't like the darkness. I felt like it was pressing in on me. I began bawling as the night poured loneliness on me.

After a moment, a light was ignited somewhere a little ways off. In the light I could see two figures. One was dazed, on the ground, and shining at a few places. The other figure was tall, menacing, and cruel to look at, completely unscathed except for her wrist, which was glinting ever so slightly in the bluish light. I saw the tall woman kick the girl on the ground. There were a few seconds in which none of them moved, or so it seemed to me. Then a streaming bolt of yellow light streaked its way toward me at the same time that a small, bubble-like shield formed around me. The light hit the shield and a wave of fire soared back toward the two figures. The image was burned into my eyes – literally. After the flash of fire and after the phantom image of it left, I saw the two figures, both still alive, sitting up next to each other. A little bit later, the woman left, just like that, a simple twist and she was gone, a small pop in the dark night.

The other girl slowly sank down to her back. The bubble around me slowly faded away and the night's cool air hit me again. Still holding my legs tightly, I began sobbing quietly. Another light lit up the area where the girl was and I saw a man crouch next to her. Faint pops could be heard in the distance. More people ran into the light. The man told one of the other people to take care of the girl and then began walking in my direction. When he saw me huddled on the rubble, he rushed to me and crouched at my side. He had honey colored hair and brown, milk chocolate eyes.

"Chloe?" he asked.

I nodded. "I want Mommy."

The man pursed his lip. "We're working on that. I'm going to bring you to a safe place in the meantime, though. Is that alright?"

I nodded again.

He picked me up and wiped the tear tracks from my face. "It'll be alright, I promise."

My eyes suddenly snapped open, finding myself back in the orphanage, gasping for breath. Sweat dripped down my back as I tried to breathe regularly. The nightmare of the day my parents died had always haunted me. Rubbing my face, I got up and pulled on some new clothes. At the door, I paused, not wanting to face the group of kids that called themselves Populars. Taking another deep breath, I pushed open my door.

Someone slammed the door closed, making it smash against my face.

Startled, I cried out and grabbed my nose. I heard snickering on the other side of the door and walked out to see a grey haired boy named Zachary Tenton shaking as he laughed. I glared at him, cursing myself for waking up so late. Usually, I could wake up nice early and avoid getting harassed by them. Sometimes not.

Brushing passed him, I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bowl of cereal. Like all the other times when I had woken up late, all thirteen seats were taken up. I leaned against the counter and ate my cereal instead of sitting down. I was only just getting into my food when someone hit the bottom of it, splashing it all over my front. When I looked up, I saw Zach suppressing a smile. As the room erupted into laughter, he walked away. I grabbed a towel and started cleaning up the mess. When I stood up, two kids were standing in front of me. They were both brothers and had the same straight black hair and mischievous brown eyes. They were friends of Zach's, their names being Max and Marvin Colt. When I tried to get through them, they just pushed me back.

"I feel like playing another game of Catching Fire," Marvin said, "How about you, brother?"

"I wouldn't mind," Max told him.

I backed away from them. Catching Fire wasn't a game that typically agreed with me. Let's just say that there was only one rule: whoever catches the fire before the others, wins the game. And I'm the fire. They called me that mainly because of my flaming red hair, which went down past my knees.

"Aw." Max pretended to look sorry for me. "Are you scared?"

Marvin stepped forward and I acted on impulse, throwing the rag that was in my hands at his face and ducking under the table. Dodging a few kicks from the kids sitting at the benches around the table, I popped up at the other side. Only problem now was that Zach had stood up and joined in on the fun. And he stood merely ten paces away from me. I stepped toward the door.

"Five bucks for the one who wins!" Zach announced.

Several more kids stood up as I yanked open the door and bolted outside. The gate surrounding Wool's Orphanage was open, so I just ran as fast as I could. Looking back, I saw Zach being the first one out of the door. Sprinting as fast as I could, I ran down to the end of the driveway and turned left down the road, which was pretty strange for me. Usually I ran into the Snowyarc Forest. I knew those woods a lot better than I knew the streets of London. Maybe there was another way into the forest other than going around the orphanage.

Something tugged on my hair. With a strangled yelp, I was forced to stop running and fell back on the pavement. The back of my head crashed against the pavement, making my eyesight go in and out of focus.

"Got her!" Zach shouted.

The door to the house next to us opened and a man came out of it. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?" He walked down the steps of his house. "Scram! Get out of here!"

Zach and all of the people near him started grumbling and walking away. Before the man could help me up, I scrambled to my feet and ran around the corner of his house. The back of my head throbbed as I ran and whenever I jumped over a fence or trashcan a sharp stab of pain crept down my neck.

Eventually, I got to the forest and sat underneath a tree. I hugged my chest. Usually the Populars would wait until after lunch to start hounding me, but I guess today was different. Then I remembered. Today was the anniversary of Zachary becoming the leader of the Populars. I shivered, hugging my legs tighter.

I'm not much of a people person, to tell the truth. Never had much luck befriending people. With Zach, I guess I had even worse luck. He and I _used _to be friends. _Used to. _Then we had gotten into an argument, things in the room were broken as I broke into a full on, childish tantrum that had cost us our friendship. It had taken a lot of word twisting from the Populars to get him to take the leadership role left by one of the kids who had grown out of the orphanage and ran off to somewhere in Romania, but Zach had still taken the position.

Something hit my thigh. I grimaced, looking down to see a rock near my feet. I cautiously picked it up, and then looked up from the ground.

Speak of the devil.

I shot to my feet, running as I watched Max heft another sharp-looking rock in his hands. I crashed through the trees, ducking under the hanging branches and knowing that they'd be able to see my flaming red hair. Something struck the trunk of the tree I was next to, sending me running even faster than before. I looked over my shoulder.

The Populars were gaining on me.

I quickly changed directions, dodging a tree root that was jutting above the ground. The thought that always crossed my mind when I ran through this forest came back into focus: the river. Until a few years ago, the Snowyarc River had been a deep, gently flowing river that ran through nearly half of Surrey. The reason it was lower nowadays, that would be because a dam was built towards the head of it, which only let out a fraction of the water that used to flow through it.

Looking over my shoulder again, I tripped a few feet from the edge of the river. I scrambled up to my feet again, but stumbled as something sharp prodded me in the back. Back on the ground, I flipped around, looking up at the three Populars, all breathing heavily.

"Come on," Zach said, "Get up."

Not exactly wanting to follow his orders, but knowing that either way I was going to end up standing, I stood up. I glanced at each of their wooden swords apprehensively. Zach himself had been able to whittle wood since he was about seven, and had gotten increasingly better with each year he took honing his skills. I took a deep breath, wondering how on earth I had managed to not notice the small detail of sharp, wooden swords swinging in their hands while they had been chasing me. Either way, I was in trouble; Populars had a pretty twisted sense of humor when it came to playing games.

"The fire always gets doused in the river," Max said as Zach moved his sword under my chin, "Can we change that?"

I grabbed Zach's sword between my fingers and moved it away from my throat. "I don't like playing this game," I seethed.

"Aww," Marvin said, "Looks like you'll just have to go along with it, then."

Zach brought his sword back to my throat.

"Get that thing away from me," I growled.

"No thanks," Zach said.

"Get that thing away from me," I said again.

"Ooh, she's getting mad," Marvin and Max chuckled. Zach joined in and they began laughing loudly. I saw the chance and took it.

I grabbed Zach's sword and pulled it out of his hand, pulling him along with it. Before he could send both of us into the shallow river, I grabbed his arm, twisted it behind his back, turned him to face Marvin and Max, and put the wooden sword to his throat.

"If you bring a weapon to battle," I hissed in his ear "you should be ready to do battle against it."

He struggled with me, but that only proved to hurt his arm even worse than before.

"Let me go," Zach ordered.

"Maybe if you say please," I told him "Or if you, oh, I don't know, _stop picking on me!_"

"Let Snake go," Marvin and Max said, gripping their swords tighter.

"Or what?" I asked.

"We'll attack you," Marvin threatened.

"No you won't," Zach and I said in unison. We rolled our eyes.

I continued, "If you attack me, you'll hurt Zachary."

The Colts glanced at each other. "What do we do, Snake?" Marvin asked.

"How should-" Zach began.

I pushed the sword harder against Zach's neck and he stopped talking. "Now," I growled so only he heard me, "you can feel a fraction of what I have felt for the past five years."

"Let him go," Max said, "and we'll let you go."

"I don't think you will," I replied.

"Chloe-" Zach began.

"Shut up," I hissed.

"Behind you," Zach continued anyways.

I glanced over my shoulder, seeing nothing. In the corner of my eye, I saw Marvin thrust his sword towards me. Not wanting any blood to be spilt, I pushed Zach over the edge of the now-shallow river bed, Marvin's sword passing in front of my stomach. I twirled around and slid down the steep bank, jumping onto the largest flat rock nearby. Once I regained my bearings again, I jumped from rock to rock and eventually over to the other side of the river. I turned around and waved, knowing they couldn't use the slender rocks they need to use in order to get to the other side. Zach was dusty with dirt and drenched in water. I turned around again and ran for the orphanage as Marvin and Max slid down the bank to where Zach was.

* * *

Ten minutes later, I was inside of the orphanage. I put the sword in the umbrella holder and dashed to my room. After locking the door, which I normally do, I leaned heavily on it.

I liked my room. It was painted with a nice green color, with small silver snakes printed here and there along the walls. At the window, which looked out upon the forest, were my two blue and white vases, which held a bouquet of tulips in each. My bed was covered with maroon blankets, which made the room seem quite christmasy. My books were placed on the shelf next to the door, most of which were already read and starting to collect dust. Other than that, barely anyone can hear what I say when I'm in here, but that can also be used to another person's advantage.

I heard the door to the orphanage open and several people walk inside, all talking. I could hear Madam Kormen with the three Populars as well.

"Chloe Geneva Casey!" Madam Kormen shouted down the hall. I winced. Usually the Madams of the orphanage had the decency to not call people by their middle names, but when they do, that's when they really are mad. I sheepishly poked my head outside my room.

"Yes?" I called down it.

"Get over here right this second!" Madam Kormen replied.

I scampered down the hall to the kitchen where Madam Kormen was standing in front of Max, Marvin, and Zach. The three of them were smirking.

Madam Kormen was a plump lady, to tell you the truth. She was rather harsh on some of the kids at the orphanage, me being one of them. She had piercing yellow eyes that reminded me of a snake and black hair pinned in a tight bun. To most of the kids at the orphanage, she was quite intimidating.

"Is it true that you pushed Zachary into the Snowyarc River?" Madam Kormen asked, "And you stole his wooden sword?"

"I didn't steal the sword-" I began.

"Answer the question," she ordered.

"Yes, I pushed Zachary into the river-"

"And the sword?"

"It's over in the umbrella basket, but I didn't steal it."

Zach shot off to get his sword.

"Then how did it get into your possession?"

"They were running after me in the woods again, brandishing their swords, and I managed to keep Zachary's away from me. I didn't do anything wrong!"

Madam Kormen looked at Marvin and Max. "Were you two brandishing your swords at her?"

"No," they said innocently.

"Of course they're going to say no!" I said angrily, "They don't want to get into trouble!"

"Chloe, you know the rules about lying-" Madam Kormen began.

"I'm not lying! They are!" I shouted.

"Your punishment will be doing their chores for a week," she said.

"But I didn't do anything!" I said again, more subdued.

"What I say is final, Miss Casey," Madam Kormen said, "Now go to your room."

"But-"

"Go to your room. _Now._"

I walked away, steaming. Marvin, Max and Zach were still snickering as I walked into my room.

As soon as I closed the door, a hand was put over my mouth. My heart pounded. I didn't want anything to happen again. And by that, I mean that things like this happen to me quite often, usually by the exact same person. I kicked at whoever was behind me, but that proved useless. Whoever it was was not going to let go of me anytime soon.

"Stop squirming, I'm not here to hurt you," a voice hissed in my ear. It was a woman. After a moment, I stopped moving. "Good. Now, this might seem a little crazy, but I believe that you will understand. In two days Zachary Tenton and his gang are going to try to attack you again. You have to let them off easy. Do you follow me?"

I nodded my head. I understood perfectly. But how she knew – that still remained a mystery to me. I mumbled a few words against her hand. Cautiously, she lowered it, but didn't let me turn.

"It might not work as you want it to," I whispered, "The future isn't set in stone, after all."

"Oh, I know," she replied, "But if they aren't cut off the hook this one time, your and Zachary's futures won't be as bright and cheery as it could be. I'm only trying to help, though I doubt you believe me there."

"It's not as if this just happens to happen all the time to me, now is it?" I snapped.

"Just remember to let them off the hook."

She let go of me and I heard a low popping sound. I turned around, but whoever it was wasn't there anymore. Shakily, I sat down on my bed, my heart still hammering. Perhaps I was just imagining things.

* * *

Two days later, the same Populars were trying to beat me again. They were chasing me through the woods, once again. They were a little more cautious, though, as it was starting to get dark and rain. I was nearing the creek. They were further behind me than last time. I quickly turned to a tree and grabbed the lowest branch. I climbed until I was about ten feet from the ground. Zach, Marvin, and Max were at the base of the tree, searching for me.

"Where'd she go?" Marvin asked. I hardly dared to even breath.

"Maybe she went across the creek again," Max suggested. The others agreed and went across the creek, every now and then slipping on the moss-ridden rocks. I sighed when they were out of my line of sight. After waiting a few minutes with my head resting on the trunk of the tree, I climbed down. I slowly crossed the creek, hoping that they were thinking that I had ran back to the orphanage. I crept behind trees and hid behind bushes all the way to the tree line. I looked out from behind a tree and looked over at the orphanage. The door was closed, no one was within my range of sight. I carefully made my way over to the door and peaked inside. No one was in the kitchen. There was no sound coming from the halls. Although uncomfortable with the silence, I edged my way inside.

I decided to go to my room straight away. I went through the hall, hearing no sound at all, still. I put my hand on the doorknob and twisted it, but it didn't budge. I tried again, and again, and again. Someone had locked my door. Zachary. Zachary had locked my door. I should've known better than to keep my key in the same place for five years running. That also meant that Zach probably had my key. I went to the living room. I opened the door and walked in. And found myself surrounded by all twenty Populars. They parted and let Zach come over to me.

Acting unperturbed by the wooden swords that were pointing at me, I looked Zach in the eyes and said, "Where is the key to my room?"

From his belt, he unhooked a chain of at least fifty keys and tossed it to me. I caught it and immediately unhooked the one that was bronze, short, and scratched. Zach looked at me with mild curiosity. I tossed the rest of the keys to Zach. Whether they were his or not, well, it didn't really matter to me at the time. I pocketed my key.

"I'm going to assume that there's something else you want?" I said.

Zach waved a hand to one of the Populars and his wooden sword was thrown over to him. It was one of the most unique swords that any of them had. Zach had whittled the tip into a wickedly sharp point, one that could make someone bleed. He had also carved the handle so that the end was a round pommel and the grip was carved with hand holds. The cross-guard was a thin triangle with a rectangle on each side. The cross-guard was carved intricately, two dragons with their necks intertwined. On the flat of the blade of each side and near the cross-guard was a medium sized circle with his name written in it. Above that was a two headed snake facing another two headed snake. I looked at it apprehensively.

"I'd like to see what you're capable of," Zach said, lifting his sword so that it was pointing towards the ceiling at an angle, right in between him and I.

"You want me to duel you?" I asked, wondering if I had heard correctly.

"Yes," he answered. He snapped a finger at another Popular and he gave me a wooden sword. I weighed it in my hands. "Well?" Zach asked.

"This sword isn't balanced," I told him, "I'll duel you if I get a balanced sword."

His arms fell to his sides in annoyance. "Really, Chloe?" he said, "Do you have to ruin _every_ dramatic moment?"

Right as he finished his sentence, I thrust my sword at him, saying, "Sorry, I lied. I'll use this one."

Caught by surprise, he barely dodged my blow before it could hit him in the gut. He returned the blow, aiming at my shoulder. I parried his blow and aimed for his legs. He parried my attack. The Populars around us made a circle. Zach and I continued to try to strike the other, jumping forward and then quickly back; throwing our wooden blades at the other; dodging a whistling blow. After a bit, our swords clashed and made a sound louder than usual. Almost immediately after that the door to the room opened. Madam Kormen walked in. Zach and I let our arms fall to our sides.

"What is going on here?" she boomed.

Seeing everyone else hesitate at answering to this and remembering what the stranger had said, I quickly said, "It's my fault that this got started. Earlier, outside in the forest, Zachary and his friends were playing swordplay, like usual. I accidentally walked in on one of their duels and I agreed to dueling against Zachary if they would let me walk away afterwards. We began to duel, but Zachary slipped on the muddy ground. We moved into here, thinking that we wouldn't slip as much."

Everyone was staring at me. Madam Kormen seemed like she was evaluating the probability of my story being true. After a long, pressing silence, Madam Kormen said slowly, "Alright, fine. But, Chloe, you're grounded for three days. Sword fighting inside? How much more stupid can you get?"

"I'm not the one that's stupid," I grumbled.

"Go to your room, Miss Casey," Madam Kormen ordered.

I pushed through the crowd and out of the door. I heard someone following me, and had a pretty good idea of who it was.

"Why did you do that?" Zach asked.

I reached my door and took out my key. "Do what?" I asked quietly.

"You _covered _for us!" Zach whispered, "You hate us. Why'd you do that?"

I looked him in the eyes. "Can't you tell by my _face_?" I snarled, opening the door.

Zach's eyes widened. Before he could recover, I was inside my room, locking the door. I put the wooden sword I had bothered to bring with me against the wall.

"Chloe!" Zach shouted from outside, "Chloe, how do you know that I can read faces?"

"It's called deductive reasoning," I snarled, "Now, leave me alone!"

He didn't say anything else, so I sat down on my bed. The crinkling of paper made me stand back up and pick up a note.

_Dear Chloe,_

_Whoever finds this letter, please give this to Chloe Casey. A letter was sent to me by accident instead of you. When I come back on friday I will give you the letter._

_From,_

_Kate Longfurrow_

_Date Written,_

_Thursday, August 21, 3017_

What a coincidence. Madam Kate would be back in four days. Right after my restrictions to the outside world would end. Amazing.

I never believed in coincidences. I still don't believe in coincidences. Whoever it was who had managed to get into my room, she must've really been intent upon that one day. She must've been pretty thorough if she had gotten the date right.

Someone knocked on the door. I groaned. It was Zach, I was sure. Walking over to the door, I grabbed the sword, just in case. I opened the door.

"Leave me alone, Zachary," I hissed, "I don't want to talk to you, I don't want to see you, so scram!"

"Chloe, can I just talk to you for a moment?" he asked, "Inside your room, maybe?"

I had to give it to him, he was brave. Not many people in the orphanage risked angering me, period. An even lower percentage risked standing around _after _angering me. Because things like this happen to them when I lose my patience: I opened the door wider and brandished the wooden sword, missing Zach's nose by a fraction of an inch. As I moved forward, he moved away from me, his back hitting the wall behind him. I kept the sword pressed against his adam's apple.

"You must be barking, Zachary Tenton," I growled, "absolutely _barking mad _to think I'd let _you _or anyone in your precious little gang inside my room."

I slipped back into my room, leaning on the door after closing it. Zach knocked on the door again.

"_Leave – me – alone!_" I shouted, punctuating each word with a hit on the door with the wooden sword. I heard him sigh, and then slide down the door and sit down.

"Can we just have a face-to-face discussion for once?" he asked irritably.

_"For once?" _I repeated, "Zachary, the last time we had a face-to-face discussion, I got a black eye. Yeah, sure, I'll come out and have a face-to-face discussion with you."

He was silent for a moment. Not knowing what else to do, I sat down. I didn't exactly want to be Zachary's friend, but I knew that, if I do end up being his friend, the Populars might let up on me a little more.

"Chloe, do you think we could be friends again?" Zach whispered as if reading my mind.

My expression became stony. "No," I said flatly, "Now, leave."

"Why?"

"Because, Zachary, I hate you. I hate what you have done to me. I hate those who you hang around with. Now leave me alone!"

There was a bit of shuffling behind the door. I was thankful he was leaving, until he said, "Chloe, just let me in, I want to talk to you."

Then, all I was was angry.

I got up, grabbed the wooden sword, and yanked open the door. "I don't want to talk, Zachary! For the past five years, all you have done is chase me around the woods, watch as the others beat me and kicked me around, and get me into trouble for things I obviously didn't do! Just leave me alone!"

It was only then when I realized my eyes were stinging. I wasn't crying, but my eyes burned. I was suddenly much less interested in getting Zach away from me and much more interested in sitting down. I stumbled, the wooden sword clattering to the floor. Zach caught me, recognizing what was going to happen in a few seconds. My arm twitched as he began dragging me to my bed. By the time he had gotten my legs up on the bed, I was passed out.

At least, that's what it looked like.

The doctors had said I was an epileptic. Medical records showed that my mother had been one also, and epilepsy was hereditary. But I knew different. I could see things differently than other people. From what my photographic memory could tell, my mother and father had both called it the gift of Sight. They had, on several occasions, discussed the fact that my mother was a Diviner, that she could see things far, far into the past and into the future, even.

And I was the same. Being an epileptic was a front. And it was only a front because being a Diviner was illegal, and that was why my mother and father were running away from people, people who called themselves Huntsmen. Huntsmen dedicated their lives to find every last Diviner known to mankind.

Anyways, back to the vision I was having. I was in a dark forest in the middle of the night. Nearby, a glow was coming from a staircase descending into the ground. Of their own accord, my legs walked towards the light. My brain was screaming at me, _Don't go down there! _as if it knew that there was danger, but my legs weren't listening.

Down the stairs there were two people. Something in the back of my mind told me they were women, and they were very powerful, but I couldn't see their faces, so I couldn't tell who they were. When they spoke, one had a menacing, crazy sounding voice. The other seemed to have two overlapping voices: Sorrow and pity accented against anger and resentment in a clashing manor.

"The plan is ready," the crazy one said, "Shall we start immediately?"

"Patience," Two Voicer replied sharply, "I have let myself be restless over the years, but I am not going to anymore. This time, we _will _get the girl. I am not going to let impatience get the better of me."

She froze and turned towards me. I stilled.

"What is it?" the crazy one asked.

"She's here," the other snarled, holding up a stick-like something. There was a flash of light and I sat bolt upright in an infirmary bed. My head swam and I nearly collapsed back onto the bed, but one of the Madams helped me support myself and get into a better position. She had brown hair and brown eyes.

"What happened?" I asked on impulse.

"You had a seizure," she told me, "Did you take your medicine like asked?"

I sighed. "Yes," I lied, "I took my medicine, Madam Madicus."

"You're completely sure?" she continued.

I nodded my head. "Yes, I took my medicine." Leave it to your own personal doctor to hound you for taking medicine you don't need.

Madam Madicus looked at me as if trying to gauge if I was telling the truth. She and the other Madams, on several occasions when I was younger, had found full phials of the medicine I was supposed to take under my bed or in my closet or in my wardrobe. I used to complain and say I didn't need it and that it only stunted my growth and made me woozy for hours on end. Ever since a year or so ago, I had been throwing the medicine out of the window, literally, and keeping the glass phials as proof that I had "taken" my medication.

"Alright," she said, and I thought there was doubt in her voice, "I've already given you your medication for today, so there's no need to fret about forgetting to take it today." Oh, the sarcasm in her voice. "Just rest, alright, Chloe? We already called your summer school, they already know about what happened."

I groaned. The school. The kids at the orphanage probably knew about what had happened and were spreading it around the school. Every time something like this happens, everyone who doesn't like me, which is mostly the Populars and their friends, would be making fun of me with renewed force. More jeering, more laughing, more poking fun. Hopefully, I would be able to contain my anger instead of punching someone in the face.

"Chloe, there's nothing to be ashamed of," the Madam chided gently, "For you, this is natural, hereditary. Maybe if your mother-"

"This _isn't _my mother's fault!" I shouted.

Madam Madicus put her hands up in surrender. I had always been short when arguing with people, which is why a lot of people say that I'm four foot five with two extra feet of attitude. But when it came to my parents, everyone acted as if they were evil terrorists or something. Well, everyone except Madam Kate, for which I was very thankful of.

"I didn't mean it in an aggressive way," Madam Madicus said, "I'm just saying that if she didn't have it, you wouldn't have it either." And maybe you'd live longer.

That was one thing the Madams never discussed openly with me, but I had found out early in life. Most people with epilepsy died in a small range of ways, but usually epileptics still died early on in life. In the UK alone, about a thousand deaths occur every year due to epilepsy, and most of them were associated with seizures and only forty-two percent of the thousand had cases that could've been avoidable. Me not being an actual epileptic meant nothing in this case, however. I still had seizures, and several times already in my life, I had gotten severely injured because of them. Once, I had even broken my wrist.

"It's not her fault she had epilepsy, either," I grumbled.

"I know," Madam Madicus agreed, "I was only pointing it out."

I let the matter drop and attempted to get up. Madam Madicus stopped me.

"Chloe, you saw what happened when you woke up," she said, "You should rest and not go running around the orphanage."

"I'm fine," I protested, "It was only the medication making me woozy for a bit."

"The medication will make you woozy for a while," Madam Madicus said with a condescending smile, "Until the side effects wear off, you can't go walking around."

"Can I at least go to my room?" I asked, "If you really want to, you can help me down the stairs."

She considered this. "Alright. But no going out of your bed and I'll be in and out every thirty minutes or so."

"Fine by me."

* * *

By the time everyone started coming back from school, I was allowed to walk around freely. Secretly, I met with one of the kids who were rather neutral with me and asked about any missed homework.

"Nothing that I know of," Rose told me, "There's an algebra test later this week, but-"

She made a small whimpering sound and darted off after looking over my shoulder. I tensed, knowing exactly who was standing behind me. Slowly, I turned to glare at Zachary Tenton.

"What is it?" I hissed.

"I wanted to see how you were doing," he said simply.

He sounded honest enough, but I wasn't sure. He also sounded a bit worried, but I didn't let that get to me.

"Get _away_ from me, Zachary," I snapped.

Zach rolled his eyes. "Chloe, I'm trying to be nice," he said exasperatedly, "I'm trying to _rebuild our relationship._ Can you at least help with the burden?"

I glared at him, but I was a bit curious, too. Was he really trying to become friends again? I remembered back when we were younger, the first time we were friends. Sometimes we had been a bit short with each other. Sometimes we had a blast running around playing tag. And then, only a little after our falling-out, he had pretended to be my friend again. Only when I actually became his friend did he cunningly get everyone to throw eggs at me, some of which were rotten.

I walked away from him, towards the kitchen to do the dishes. As I hoped he wouldn't, he followed me. I turned on the water.

"Oh, come on, Chloe," Zach said, "Even you know the silent treatment doesn't work."

"I'm trying to do the chores you made me do, Zachary," I replied, "Scram."

"Chloe, you should know me," he continued, "I'll do whatever it takes to get you to realize I'm being completely honest here."

I didn't reply.

"If it comes to it, I'll beg in front of a crowd. Maybe I could be a bit more theatrical with it and-"

I put my hands on the counter to resist slapping Zach. "If you really want to be friends with me, then leave me alone. Maybe in a month I'll consider it."

Zach looked at me as if he didn't think it was fair, and then, right before he said something, he walked away. I was so stunned that he actually listened to me that I dropped my wash cloth into the water and didn't do anything about it.

* * *

The next few days were eerily calm. Zachary didn't come near me at all. Rumors went around that he had gotten bored of chasing me around. As usual, I didn't talk to many people. Even the Madams noticed how I wasn't yelling at anyone. The day Madam Kate came was the first time I had seen Zach since I had nearly slapped him. She had come to my room with Zach to hand us our letters that had gone to her by accident. After handing them to us, she left the room. My letter was addressed to me... very precisely.

_Miss C. Casey_

_Room Number 27_

_Hall Number 1_

_Wool's Orphanage_

_Green Fox Landing_

_Greater London_

Holding the envelope in my hands, I could tell that the parchment was very thick. On the other side of the envelope was a seal with a coat of arms, most likely for the school of Hogwarts; a lion, a snake, a badger, and an eagle, all surrounding the letter H. From what I could read, due to the ink being smeared, it said this:

_Hogwarts School of_

_Wi-a- and Wi-y_

_Headmaster: Contalis Toorane_

_Deputy Headmaster: Montra Contare_

_Dear Chloe Casey,_

_We are glad to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of W-hc- - W-d-y. Please find the list of things to bring enclosed in this envelope. We await your - by no later than August 31._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Deputy Headmaster,_

_Montra Contare_

Although I was confused by all this, I went through the envelope to find the list of things to bring. It was also smudged and smeared.

_Hogwarts School of_

_- and -_

_Uniform:_

_First Year Students Will Need:_

_Three sets of pl-in work robes (bl-k)_

_One plain poin-d hat (black) for - wear_

_One pair of protective gloves (- hide or sim-ar)_

_One winter cloak (black, w-h silver fasten—gs)_

_(All should carry name tags)_

_Course Books_

_1. -_

_2. -_

_3. -_

_4. -_

_5. -_

_Other_

Zach had sat down on my bed to read his letter. I had half the mind to yell at him to leave the room, but I felt too drained to even tell him nicely to please leave the premises. So I sat next to him, hoping there wasn't another fit on the way. It was bad enough Zach thought he had "saved" me once. I didn't need him gloating over how he did it twice. I went through my envelope again, making sure I had taken everything out. As it happened to be, there was one thing that I hadn't taken out.

_Dear Miss Casey,_

_I, Contalis Toorane, will be coming to your orphanage to explain more about what is going on. This is all happening due to your parents wishes. I'll try to be at Wool's Orphanage on this Sunday, August 25, no later than noon. Make sure to tell your Madams._

_See you then,_

_Headmaster of Hogwarts,_

_Contalis Toorane_

Zach finished going through his stuff as I stared blankly at the signature. Contalis _Toorane. _Possibly the same Toorane that I remembered from the nightmare I knew was true. I shivered as the night replayed itself in my head. The smudges started to make sense, but I still didn't understand what the letter was saying. I knew what everything meant, every little detail that they were trying to cram in, but I still couldn't understand the meaning completely. Zach was now looking at another piece of paper. When he looked up, he found that I had tucked all of contents of the envelope back into it.

"Did your letters have smudges on them?" Zach asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Do you know what any of them are supposed to say?" he continued.

I quickly said "No, not at all."

Zach looked at me with a knowing glare, but was hesitant to say anything else.

* * *

After breakfast, I told Madam Kate about Toorane coming. At this news, she seemed to be slightly confused, yet also welcoming. I was still a bit baffled about why Zach was really holding back on fighting with me, but tried to not dwell on those thoughts; that was what he wanted me to do, get so curious I had to agree to his terms just to see what he was thinking. I stayed in my room mostly, not wanting to get into any fights and, much more than anything else, I didn't want to see Zach anywhere near me. As Saturday strolled over, I was found on my bed reading _The Tales of Orlan Grant._

Then it was sunday.

Predictably, I was nervous about meeting the Headmaster of my new school. I knew I was going to accept no matter what, seeing how I'd be able to distance myself from the likes of the Populars. It would be a win-win situation; they wouldn't have to put up with me, and I wouldn't have to put up with them. But this was the Headmaster. Of the school I was going to on September first. And I was horrible with meetings with everyone, from anywhere. I remembered a time when a guy from France came to talk to me and a few others... Let's just say things didn't end well.

Pacing around in my room for the fifty third time in three minutes, I glanced at my watch. 9:34. Mr. Toorane would be coming in two hours and twenty six minutes. I stopped walking and sighed. Being holed up in my room for all this time was not doing me any good. Add me being anxious to that, and you get me needing some fresh air and new scenery. I made my way outside my room and told Madam Kate that I was heading to the nearby teashop. Much to my surprise, no one followed me on my way out the door.

You might be wondering, why in the world I would go to a teashop? I had other things to do, right? Well, not exactly. Unless I wanted the same thing to happen that I told you about with the Populars, I was stuck up in my room, maybe I could sneak out of the house unseen. And my favorite thing in life, so far, would probably be tea.

On the streets, no one acted as if I was a target or anything I could use to describe the way the Populars viewed me. A few teenagers were fooling around at the other side of the street, laughing, hugging, teasing each other. One of them pecked the other on the cheek as I turned into the shop.

I ordered a regular sized tea with milk and sugar and sat down after getting my drink and paying the cashier. Everything was calm and the only sound was the low rumble of talking and plates clinking. I should've come here sooner rather than later. I checked my watch. 10:03. One hour and fifty seven minutes. I rolled my tea between my hands and took a sip of it. Nothing happened to calm me down. For a while, I sat there and just drank my tea. Maybe it was just nerves, but I felt as if something bad was going to happen.

About an hour later, I was throwing away my cup and walking towards the door. In the corner of my eye, I saw a guy with peculiar clothing walking down the street. I stepped away from the door to get a better look at the guy. He wore a purple cloak lined with green and donned a strange, multicolored hat. Honey blonde hair stuck out the brim of his hat and chocolate brown eyes stared ahead of him.

I bolted outside the door, recognizing Contalis Toorane from the one night I had seen him.

"Mr. Toorane!" I called, running after him.

He turned around, looking a bit confused. Then his eyes widened. I guessed he remembered me, too. People were always saying that once you see my green eyes, you can't forget them.

"Chloe Casey?" he asked, "What are you doing _here _of all places?"

I stopped next to him and pointed back at the teashop. "I was grabbing a cup of tea earlier. I was just heading back to the orphanage and I saw you."

Mr. Toorane nodded. "Perhaps you can show me a better way to Wool's Orphanage?"

"I suppose, yeah," I said, "There isn't much of a better way than just walking down the sidewalk from here, unless you have other things to do, but I doubt you do."

"Hmm. You knew my name?"

"Er, yes, it was on the note you put in the envelope."

"How, though, did you know that I was that man?"

"I, um, can remember you from the night my parents died."

Toorane stopped walking. He looked me in the eyes. "How can you remember back then? What do you remember?"

I shifted uncomfortably. "My memory, it's photographic. I can remember back to when I was about six months old."

He appraised me carefully. "How much do you know?" he asked.

I traced the scar on the palm of my hand, not meeting his eyes. "All of it."

After a moment of silence, I said, "Let's carry on, why don't we?"

He must've seen that I really didn't feel like talking, because he just nodded and continued walking.

When we made it to the orphanage, Madam Kate greeted us with a friendly hello.

"I suppose you are going to explain to _everyone, _right?" she asked Toorane in a low voice.

"Of course," he said, "Is there a place where we could all talk?"

"Right this way, Contalis," she said, leading the two of us into the living room.

I walked over to a wall where no one was near. Zachary was lounging in one of the chairs, his feet propped up on the armrest. When he saw Mr. Toorane, he sat upright. He caught my eye and raised an eyebrow, motioning with his eyes towards the Headmaster. I scowled and looking away.

"Excuse me," Mr. Toorane said, "May I have your attention."

The rumble of voices died down.

"Who's this?" sneered a voice at the other side of the room. I saw my worst favorite Popular of them all, next to Zachary, of course: Philly Stead.

"I am Contalis Toorane, Headmaster of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Wizardry?" Zach asked, "Are you serious? Wands and that sort of stuff?"

"Yes, I am serious," Mr. Toorane said patiently, "Magic, in other words, is still around. If you can't take my word, ask Miss Casey about what she told me."

Everyone looked at me. I looked at him carefully, not sure if I should talk about it. Mr. Toorane nodded encouragingly. I still wasn't sure.

"Come on, Chloe," Marvin sneered, "Tell us all about witches and wizards."

I glared at him, but still didn't say anything.

"I know what's happening," Max pretended to whisper, "Her issues are acting up."

It took everything in my body to not shout when about half of the group chuckled. Surprisingly, Zachary Tenton wasn't one of them. But I realized something: The Populars thought I was weak for not saying anything. Just to prove them wrong, I talked.

"I can remember the night my parents died," I said. Everyone quieted down.

"What?" Philly scoffed, "You can't even remember three pages from _The Hobbit, _let alone-"

_"'He had picked his way stealthily for some distance, when he noticed a place of dense black shadow ahead of him black even for that forest, like a patch of midnight that had never been cleared away,'" _I recited, _"'As he drew nearer, he saw that it was made by spider-webs one behind and over and tangled with another. Suddenly he saw, too, that there were spiders huge and horrible sitting in the branches above him, and ring or no ring he trembled with fear lest they should discover him. Standing behind a tree he watched a group of them for some time, and then in the silence and stillness of the wood he realized that these loathsome creatures were speaking one to another. Their voices were a sort of creaking and hissing, but he could make out many of the words that they said. There talking about the dwarves_!' That would be the first paragraph of page 156 in Chapter Eight, titled 'Flies and Spiders.' My memory is photographic, Philly Stead, and I remember the night my parents died."

For a moment, everyone was silent. Zach was looking at me as if he was wondering how I kept that from everyone for so long. Let's just say it was easy when most of the time no one talked to me, nor did they ask about it. Mr. Toorane even looked surprised.

"Very good, Miss Casey," he praised, "Can you continue with what you told me?"

"Very well," I replied, my stomach doing backflips, "My parents were killed by someone called the Evader. The term witch and wizard was in constant use by my parents. I remember seeing wands, and a lot of light, too. From what I know, the house blew apart. I don't know how I made it out alive, so don't ask me. There's no way to explain what it was, besides that it was magic. The same night, Zachary's mother was killed. I overheard a few words that were being exchanged and found out that the person who killed her worked for the same person who killed my parents."

Zach looked pale.

"Do you really think we're going to take this as the truth?" Philly scowled.

"We don't expect you to understand, no," Mr. Toorane replied, never taking his eyes off of me, "Would you like to see proof?"

"That would be wonderful," he drawled.

He took out what looked like a stick and aimed it at a vase full of roses. The flowers drifted up above the vase and flew around in a circle before going back into the pot.

"Could've been faked," Marvin muttered.

"How much more ignorant can you get, Marvin Colt?" I snapped, "Could you have possibly thought that the way the roses moved couldn't've been faked if strings were attached to them?"

"Don't talk to me that way, you freak," he snarled, "Just because _you _can make weird things happen-"

"Stop it," Zach said, "She isn't a freak. Even I have noticed that we all have had weird things happening to us every now and then."

"Like things breaking out of the middle of nowhere?" said Amy Travers, a secret hater of Zach's, "Or rocks flying around?"

"It is considered accidental magic," Mr. Toorane replied, "When I was young, often times things would fly around the room when I was angry."

"That has happened to a lot of us..." one of the kids said.

"And he's telling the truth," Zach agreed, "I know a liar when I see one, and Mr. Toorane isn't a liar."

"So, what is Hogwarts like?" I asked, "Zachary and I got letters about that school, though we couldn't read most of it."

"Hogwarts is a school where students with magical capabilities go to learn how to use their talents," Mr. Toorane said, "If you wish to go to this school, you may learn charms, transfiguration, potions, there are even flying lessons."

"Flying lessons?"

"Yes. Broomstick flying."

I couldn't stop myself from smiling.

"And Potions? What's that about?" Philly asked. Even he seemed to be a bit interested in this new, magical world we seemed to have just been introduced to.

"You learn how to make potions in that class," Mr. Toorane said, "But you must know that you only go to Hogwarts when you are eleven."

There was a lot of groaning from the kids, but one of them, probably the brightest kid I had ever seen, noticed that that meant Zach and I were the only ones old enough to go to Hogwarts.

"So only Zach and Chloe will be going?" little seven year old Abigail Garrison said.

"Yes," Mr. Toorane told her, "Them being the only ones of age to go to Hogwarts, they'll be the only ones going to the school."

"Where are we going to get our supplies?" I asked, "I doubt we could just go anywhere and find what we're looking for."

"There is a place called Diagon Alley a few blocks away from the train station in London," he said, "It is probably the one place almost every wizard goes once in their lifetime, at the very least."

"And when we go there," Amy said, "we'll get our own wand, right?"

"Of course," Mr. Toorane said, "You'll all need a wand of your own someday."

Everyone was getting excited about this.

"Now, another thing I need to address," Mr. Toorane continued, "All of your Madams know about you all being wizards and witches. I will turn your questions to them while I talk to Chloe and Zach separately."

"Why them?" Marvin asked.

"They need to be asked about what they are thinking about Hogwarts," he said simply.

Zach and I followed him out of the room into the kitchen. He sat at one side of the table and Zach sat directly in front of him. I sat two seats down. Mr. Toorane looked at me curiously.

"You can sit next to him," he said.

I looked at the seat separating Zach and I. "No, I don't think I can."

"Look," Zach sighed, "we had a fight a few years back, she holds grudges, I try apologizing, but she doesn't seem to forget things easily. She also seems to think I'm a klepto, which I'm not-"

"You stole my science fair project and my only photograph of my mum and dad," I said, "How aren't you a kleptomaniac?"

"I didn't steal your picture, alright?" he said heatedly, "I didn't even know you had a picture of your parents in your room."

"Then how do you explain it being in your room?" I snapped.

"How should I know?" Zach asked, "The others like playing pranks on people."

I scowled and looked away. Yeah, sure, they liked playing pranks on people. Mainly on me. In life-threatening ways. The Headmaster opened his mouth, thought better of saying what he was thinking, and then said something that was probably completely different from what he was going to say.

"So what do you two think about going to Hogwarts?" he wondered.

"I'm all for it," I said immediately.

Zach shrugged. "Sure."

Mr. Toorane smiled. "Did you get your letters yet? Or did they not make it?"

"We couldn't read half of it," Zach told him, "There were smudges and other stuff all over it."

He nodded as if he thought this was the case. "You know, the day they were sent it was storming."

I thought about the day I had found the note on my bed from Madam Kate. Yeah, I remembered running through rain and kicking up mud when trying to get away from the Populars in the forest. Mr. Toorane took out two envelopes and handed one to each of us. The contents were exactly the same, but the words were eligible.

"So _everyone _at the orphanage is a wizard?" I asked.

"All of them," he assured me. When I sighed, he continued. "Is something wrong with that?"

"She doesn't get along very well with most of them," Zach explained, "What with her epilepsy and-"

"Zachary!" I shouted.

He held his hands up. "Sorry, it slipped."

He didn't look all too apologetic.

Mr. Toorane looked at me curiously. "You have epilepsy?"

I put my head in my hands and nodded solemnly. "Madam Kate noticed it when I was four."

"That's nothing to be ashamed of, you know," he told me, "A lot of people have it."

I put my hands down. "Why do you think the kids at the orphanage-" I looked pointedly at Zach. "-think I'm weird and 'uncool'?"

"They make fun of you about it?" He seemed surprised.

"Yes." I traced the scar running the length of my forearm. "So, Diagon Alley – I guess we need to go there for our things, right?"

"Yes," Mr. Toorane said, "I suppose we could go right now, if you'd like."

"Sure," I said, "I wouldn't mind that." Anything to get away from the others at this orphanage.

Zach, however, was a bit more tentative. "Well, Mr. Toorane-"

"Please, when you are a student at Hogwarts, you call the professors either 'Sir' or 'Professor'."

"Right, er, Sir. What about the money?" he said, "I don't think that the Wizarding world would use the same kind of money as us."

"Zach," I said irritably, "our parents had enough money to stay alive, I think that we might've been left some money."

Toorane nodded. "And you actually have. It's in Gringotts Wizarding Bank, in a heavily guarded vault."

"By heavily guarded vault," Zach asked, "what do you mean?"

"Magical precautions," I said, standing up, "Can we please get out of here as fast as possible?"

All of us began walking out of the room, Zach muttering "How does she know _everything?_"

* * *

I know, there are some points that you're going to be think, "Wait, that happened in the actual Harry Potter stories! This is such a rip off!" Just wait for it. There are reasons for everything I do, so if you could please just refrain from going really critical on those points, it will be greatly appreciated.

See ya round!


	2. To Diagon Alley We Go

Chapter Two

Five minutes later, we were outside on the sidewalk, heading towards the subway. I stuffed my uncovered hand inside one of my pockets, shielding my scar to the best of my ability. When we got to the crowded subway station, Zach found some money in his pocket and paid for three tickets to the heart of London, even though he had no idea how it got there. Or so he said. It felt like hundreds of eyes were locked on me when we found our seats on the train. We all sat in silence as the train began to move throughout London, picking up even more people as it stopped at various stations. A little while after we got on, people began staring at us and talking about the man with the weird clothes and the kids that seemed to be tagging along with him. At one point, I took my hand out from my pocket and began drumming my fingers on my leg anxiously. A few minutes after that, I could've sworn that a girl about my age saw my scar and said something like, "Mum! I think that's Chloe Casey – right over there, next to the man with honey-blond hair."

As soon as I heard this, I stuffed my hand back inside my pocket and averted my eyes to the floor. The mother and daughter continued to shuffle away, glancing behind themselves one more time. Something shiny caught my eye and I bent down to take a closer look at what it was. An medium-sized pebble in the shape of an octahedron was lying on the floor in between my feet. I picked it up and sat back in my seat, examining the stone. It was only then that I noticed a white wolf carved into the glossy black stone. Thinking of how such a mysterious find it was, I put it into my pocket.

A few minutes after that, we got off the train, into the crammed crowd of everyday people. It was an even bigger crowd than I was used to.

"Oh, God," I muttered, feeling like I was about to puke. Or freak out and huddle in a corner of the room. I closed my eyes and shivered, feeling as if the temperature had dropped twenty degrees. I hated corners even more than crowded places. Why I would even consider going _there _to get away from the crowd?...

"Are you alright, Chloe?" Zach asked.

I opened my eyes and flinched at the crowd. I couldn't find my voice, so I just shook my head.

Zach looked at me funny. "Oh. Right. I get it."

"What is it?" Professor Toorane asked.

"She hates tight spaces," Zach explained. He grabbed my arm and gently pulled me closer to the crowd. "Come on, Chloe, we need to get through here."

I shook my head weakly, pulling my arm out of his hand. "Please, no."

"Chloe, there's no other way than through the crowd and out the door on the other side," Zach said. His words did just as much to me as they would to a cow.

"_Please_, not again." I stepped back from the crowd.

Professor Toorane grabbed my shoulder. "You are going to fall into the train tracks, Chloe. Please, don't do that."

I fought with him a bit, but I was too disoriented to do much. We swerved in between groups of Muggles, all carrying on with their normal activities; shunted ourselves up the long flight of stairs to open air; and shuffled along several streets, both of them still dragging me around by my arms. We stopped and they let go of me. Both of them looked at me with concern.

"I feel like I'm going to puke," I warned them.

Zach straightened up and took a step away from me. "Yeah, she's alright."

"Are you sure?" Professor Toorane asked, "She's still a bit pale."

"She's always pale, Sir," he replied, "Especially after going through a crowd."

My head pounded, but I managed to glare at him.

"Okay," Professor Toorane said, still a bit unsure. He pointed to one of the stores a few feet away from us. I looked over and saw a door most likely from the 2080's. On it was a sign that read _The Leaky Cauldron_ in fine golden print. None of the Muggles that were walking passed gave it a second glance, and didn't even look over as we walked inside. "Well, that's the Leaky Cauldron. There's an entrance to Diagon Alley in the back of it."

I could see Zach was excited to be so close to the real world we lived in. But I had a feeling that I still wouldn't be completely welcome. We walked into the pub.

Inside was a dark, shabby bar and numerous tables. People were sitting at the bar and at the tables, talking to their friends. The bartender was being kept busy with orders from the people in the pub. He did, anyways, look up as the door opened, his smile broadening as he saw Professor Toorane, probably not even noticing Zach and I, we were so short in comparison to him.

"Good evening, Headmaster," he called over his shoulder cheerily, setting a bottle of brandy back on the shelf, "Want anything today?"

"No, not today," Toorane replied, "I've got some things to do, I think I'll have to pass for now."

The bartender noticed me and Zachary.

"Who are these two?" he asked kindly, "Another few kids to go to Hogwarts?"

Someone shouted over from the other side of the bar, "Hey, Stan! Can I have another shot of that liqueur you have?"

The bartender looked over. "I'll be right there!" he shouted back. He turned back to us. "I'll be right back." He took a bottle down from the shelf behind him and walked over to one of the people sitting at the bar and refilled his cup. He walked back over to us.

"So," he said, "who are these two youngsters?"

"Well," Toorane replied, "this is Zachary and this is Chloe."

The bartender's eyes narrowed. "Is it a coincidence that those two have the first names of the survivors of the Tenton and Casey families? Or are they-"

Seeing the inevitable, I raised my hand, my right hand, mind you, so the bartender could see my scar, and waved at him. "Chloe Geneva Casey is my full name, if you must know."

His mouth fell open. People around the bar turned and began gaping at me. Other people noticed them and saw my scar as well. There was total silence. Then a tall man with black robes stepped up to me and grabbed my hand, a big smile spread across his face.

"My name," he said "is Felix Carter, I was a good friend of your parents."

"You were?" I asked.

"Heavens, yes," he said "I knew them quite well, I did."

Zach looked at the guy carefully, as if he read something completely different in Felix's face. One of the people behind Felix stood up. He had black hair and brown eyes and had a mischievous smile on his face.

"Chloe Casey?" he repeated, "And Zachary Tenton? It's amazing how you survived that attack by the Evader and her Followers. Really, it's a pleasure to meet you."

The man came up to me and took my hand in his gloved one, and then did the same to Zach. A few of the pubs inhabitants were glowering at us, but no one really noticed them. Most people were all whispering behind their hands to people near them. A quarter of them came up to us and said how they thought it was amazing we were still alive. After a few minutes, we were walking down a brick alleyway.

"How do they know our names?" Zach asked.

"You know how I told you about how your parents were killed by Dark wizards or witches?" Toorane said "Well, the organization has built up quite a reputation, especially in Britain. The Evader, well, he was said to be unstoppable, no one could beat him, or find him for that matter. Hence his given name – the Evader. But, Chloe, then he came to your house and was challenged by a girl no older than fifteen. She defeated the Evader and saved your life. A Follower came to your house, Zachary, and, had it not been for a friend of that girl coming in to save you, you would be dead standing right now. He got you out of a burning house and brought you to safety, after going through the famous Follower, Madeline LeFay."

"How come they know LeFay's name and not the Evader's _actual_ name?" I asked. Zach glanced at me, his face paler than usual.

"She's angry," Zach said, "Beware."

Professor Toorane's eyebrows scrunched up together. "How do you know that?"

"He can read faces," I grumbled.

Zach put a hand on his face. "Chloe, you don't just _tell _the headmaster at a wizarding school about me being able to read faces."

I glared at him. "_You_ told him about my epilepsy. And I don't mean to burst your bubble of negligible ignorance, but he'd probably find out anyways."

He blinked. "You lost me after bubble."

I shook my head.

We stopped walking. Professor Toorane took out his wand and tapped the bricks. Almost immediately the bricks melted away and all of my thoughts were wiped clean as I looked forward.

"Here is your formal welcome to Diagon Alley," Professor Toorane said, beaming at our amazed expressions.

Rows of shops, upon shops, upon shops, were placed everywhere my eye could see. Papers were scattered everywhere, with quills perched near them. Books were piled dangerously high. Ice cream parlors were spotted here and there. Hats, robes, dresses, and all sorts of other apparel were seen in the windows of some shops. As we began walking I noticed how many witches and wizards were running around, going from shop to shop, making sure that their children were all with them as they pushed through numerous people. Although there were quite a lot of people, Diagon Alley seemed to be so large that there seemed to be barely anyone crowding the streets. We passed a large group of kids surrounding a window with a broomstick inside.

"Tyler," I heard one of the kids say, "it's a new Firebolt! It takes several years for each one to come out, from what I hear!"

"I wish we had enough money to buy it," another said.

"Yeah," the first voice muttered, "and I want to be a few inches taller, but I don't see that happening anytime soon."

We continued walking, seeing joke shops popping up every now and then. Then a new building, easily the most recognizable in all of Diagon Alley, loomed suddenly in front of us. It was a snow-white, multistoried, marble building. Written in large letters was the name, _Gringotts Wizarding Bank. _Professor Toorane stopped us from walking up the steps, though.

"Now," he said, "this bank is run by goblins – real live goblins – and goblins can be, well, they can overreact to some things. Try not to touch their things. And if you do, by any chance, manage to begin a conversation with one, by all means do not bring up witches and wizards in general."

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Our past with goblins haven't been so clean as one might expect. There have been wars with them fighting us – the Ministry claims they're only small rebellions, but these 'rebellions' have been going on for years. But another thing to remember is that if you see any flames while we are going to your vaults don't be frightened. It's just-"

"Dragons?" Zach guessed.

"Yes, but they're only extra security for the first class wizards' banks."

With that we walked up the steps to Gringotts Wizarding Bank. There were bronze doors that were flanked by two long fingered goblins that we walked through. Beyond that set of doors there was another set of doors, but this time silver. These doors had been engraved with the words:

_Enter, stranger, but take heed_

_Of what awaits the sin of greed_

_For those who take, but do not earn,_

_Must pay most dearly in their turn._

_So if you seek beneath our floors_

_A treasure that was never yours,_

_Thief, you have been warned, beware_

_Of finding more than treasure there._

"I thought they hadn't changed it!" said a voice from behind me. I turned around and saw an adult wizard with a friendly smile on his face. "A friend of mine," the man continued, "said that they finally found out how to incorporate Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger in that. Apparently it is not true."

The adult's face was short and round and he had blue eyes that complimented his golden-blonde hair. He looked at

"Hello Professor Lure," Toorane greeted, "Chloe, Zach – this is Professor Lure. He will be your Herbology teacher."

"Merlin's beard! Are you Chloe Casey and Zachary Tenton?" Professor Lure asked us.

I nodded mutely. Zach stuck his hand out to him.

"Zachary Tenton, at your service," he said, "And don't mind Chloe, she's just horrible with crowds. And people in general, but-"

I hit his arm. "It's not that," I hissed, "It's just... a lot to take in."

"You'll get used to it," Professor Lure promised, "After a while, you will."

"Move along!" belched a goblin. The doors swung open and we walked into a room full of thousands of goblins and witches and wizards. Naturally, I didn't like it.

"It's amazing to see you two, but I've got to go," Professor Lure said, "I can't wait to teach you at Hogwarts."

He walked off to a goblin and handed him a silver key. Professor Toorane steered us towards another goblin.

"We are here to get money out of the accounts of Miss Casey and Mr. Tenton," Toorane told the goblin. The goblin peered over the edge of the table and saw Zach and I standing there. The goblin had two beady, black eyes and a whiskery sort of face. His expression was hard and stoney, but a flicker of sorrow broke out when he looked at me. One long fingered hand was extended towards Toorane. "And the keys?" he asked Toorane as his gaze flittered to my right arm and down it, towards my hand that was in a pocket of my coat. I shifted uncomfortably and focused on my shoes as if willing to untie them with mere thought.

Toorane searched through three pockets before extracting two golden keys, only a little different compared to Lure's. He handed them to the goblin and the goblin examined them for about five minutes.

"Right this way..." the goblin moaned as he got off his stool and hurried towards us. He showed us to a door that was much smaller than the entry doors and were gold instead of silver or bronze. The door led to a place not of marble or gold or silver or bronze, but a place with rough stone as walls. It was a place easily identifiable as underground: The bane of all claustrophobes. I swallowed down the urge to run back into Gringotts and watched as the goblin knelt down and tapped on some tracks that extended down the length of a tunnel. As he straightened up, a cart raced over to us. We managed to cram into the cart.

Learning to expect the unexpected, I still thought that physics couldn't be beaten. The cart would have to start slowly and gradually build up speed. Well, for once I was wrong. We started at a really, really fast speed. I'm talking about the speed of cars. Then the speed kept increasing. We took extreme turns, without slowing down. I couldn't keep track of all the turns, but I remembered the first five: left, right, right, left, middle fork. I turned to look at Zach and found him looking at a stalactite.

"Which one grows on the ceiling again?" he called as he turned to face me, "Stalactite or stalagmite?"

"Find out yourself," I shouted back.

He glared at me as the cart slammed to a stop. The goblin got out of the cart, followed by Toorane, then Zach, and lastly me.

"So what is your name?" I asked the goblin, who I noticed to be about a head shorter than me.

"My name is Altas," he said. Then he extended a hand out to Toorane who extracted the two golden keys. "Key to vault 687," Altas addressed to Toorane. Toorane gave him the slightly bigger key and Altas opened the vault. Mist flowed out of the vault as if it hadn't been opened in years. When it cleared I could see a mound of gold, silver, and bronze, all waiting for me.

"Galleons are the gold, the silver ones are Sickles, and the bronze ones are Knuts," Toorane explained "Galleons are the most, then comes Sickles, and Knuts are the last. 17 Sickles to a Galleon and 29 Knuts to a Sickle. That's all yours, Chloe."

"Whoa," I whispered. Toorane took out two money pouches and handed one to Zach and I. Toorane helped me to shovel some money into my pouch.

After Toorane and I came out from the vault, we all sat back in the cart and zipped off to Zach's vault. We went through multiple twists and turns through the passage under Gringotts before we came to a halt.

"Vault number 725!" Altas announced. Once again, when we were all out of the cart, Altas retrieved the key to the vault, but instead of putting it in like any normal key, he put it in sideways and ran his finger the length of the vault.

"Why is it a different procedure than Chloe's vault?" Zach asked as the vault swung open.

The goblin muttered something that sounded like "Clueless," and then, using his full voice, he said, "It's a high security vault. There all like that."

Zach's amount of money was about the same as mine. The only difference was that the vault was much bigger than mine and contained other treasures – jewel incrusted tiaras, books, photo frames, and other things I couldn't identify. We got Zach's money and headed back to the surface.

. . . . . .

"Can you go to Nancy's Robing Shop without me and get your uniform?" Toorane asked us as we walked down the marble steps of Gringotts, "I need to get my friend a good present this year..."

Then, without waiting to get an answer, he just walked away. We were slightly confused, but started to look for Nancy's Robing Shop. After about five minutes we found it; there was a huge blinking sign that said the name. We walked in and were greeted by two tailors.

"We're – er – going to Hogwarts and we need the uniform," I said uncomfortably.

"Alright," one of them said, "Right this way, someone else is getting fitted for Hogwarts as well."

They showed us to the back of the shop, where someone was indeed being fitted for their robes. The boy had flaming red hair and freckles all over his face. He was quite tall and thin.

"Hogwarts?" he asked as he turned to look at us.

"Yes," we both said. I made an effort at hiding my scar as best I could.

"What House do you think you'll be sorted into?" the boy asked.

"I don't know," Zach replied, though I knew that he had no idea of what he was talking about.

"Not many people know until the Sorting Ceremony," he said, "I think I'm going to get into Gryffindor, all of my family has been in Gryffindor for quite a while. It's better than being Slytherin, I say."

"Why do you say that?" Zach asked.

"Don't you know?" the boy said, "Most Slytherins are nasty, they like making fun of people, and they cause trouble to make themselves look higher than others. Not only that, but most of the Lord Voldemort's followers were in Slytherin. Gryffindors are all noble and brave, not a single Follower was in Gryffindor. I think it's mainly because of pressure that some people turn to the Dark side, but there are some people who don't even need a reason to turn."

"Is that so?" I wondered, thinking of how Zach liked making fun of people, was nasty, and liked causing trouble to make himself look better.

"It's as true as me saying that I have freckles on my face."

"Well, I don't want to be in Slytherin if that's the case with them," I said.

A small silence stole over us.

The boy looked over his shoulder and back at us. "Say, where are your parents?" he wondered.

"We're orphans," Zach explained, "Our parents were killed by Followers when we were two."

"My parents were killed by Followers, also," the boy said, his eyes narrowing, "towards the end of October in 3008, it was the twenty second."

"Really?" I asked, my eyes now narrowing as well. We stared at each other. After a bit the boy raised his eyebrow, just like did when I was curious. It was as if... no, no. That, in anyway, shape or form, was impossible...

All this had happened in only a few seconds, so Zach hadn't seen what had happened.

"Do you know Headmaster Toorane?" Zach asked. That jogged us back to reality.

"The Headmaster? No. Why?" the boy said.

"He's the one who brought us here," Zach said.

I looked over my shoulder and said, "And he's at the door."

They looked over. Toorane walked in just as the tailor fitting the boy finished with his robe. He paid for the fitting and talked with Toorane a little bit. When he saw what time it was, he had to cut the conversation short in order to rendezvous with his other family members. When the door had closed for him, we were finished being fitted.

"He seems like a nice young man," Toorane said when the boy walked out of the store "I don't believe I caught a name though..."

"He does seem nice," I agreed, "but also a little cautious. Or maybe he was a little shy with giving his name."

Zach shrugged as we walked outside. "He's still nice and he seems to know what we're going through, with losing our parents and all that."

"He's an orphan?" Toorane asked.

I nodded my head. "We talked for a little bit and he told us that much about himself, how his parents died at the hands of a Follower. Did anyone else lose their parents the night our parents died, Professor?"

"Yes," he said "there was one family, the Weasleys. Almost everyone thinks they're Ronald Weasley's descendant."

We went and bought our things after our little chat about the boy we met. We got parchment and ink at one store and then went back out in search of a store called Flourish and Blotts to get our books. Apparently a lot of the stores, such as Flourish and Blotts, were from a thousand years ago and kept their names as a mark of history. I found this very interesting due to the fact that the shops looked so brand new. We got our cauldrons, scales for weighing potion ingredients, and a telescope from other shops. Down at the apothecary shop we got our basic potion ingredients, and a few kids were found in the corner of the shop, talking behind their hands in hushed voices. I thought I heard them talking about two first years with the headmaster, and how weird that was. I ignored this and walked outside with the other two. I looked at the list of things I needed and found that we had gotten everything, but one thing. Zach and I needed a wand.

"And now we need to get to Ollivander's Wand Shop," Toorane told us.

"Who is Ollivander?" I asked as we walked the streets towards the far end of shops.

"The actual Ollivander died a while ago," Toorane said, "He gave Harry Potter and most of his friends their wands. He was said to be the greatest wand maker of his time. The store has been passed down through the centuries to his descendants. There all good, but they say that they aren't all that good. They've managed to keep the name over the years though."

We finally got to the door of Ollivander's Wand Shop and walked inside. There were rows, upon rows, upon rows of boxes all containing wands. Long boxes, short boxes, skinny boxes, polka dotted boxes, you name it.

A mysterious voice drifted towards us from the rows of wands, "Is that a Casey that just walked inside?"

I froze as a man, most likely in his mid twenties, walked up to the counter and stood behind it, staring at Zach and I with silver eyes, his honey-blond hair combed neatly. I gave him a small nod to answer his question. His eyes, like many, flitted to my right hand before he looked at Zach.

"And you must be young, Mr. Tenton," Ollivander said.

"Yes, Sir," Zach replied.

Ollivander flashed a quick grin before saying, "You both look like your parents, you know."

"Really?" Zach asked. He looked slightly startled. I, on the other hand, was quite unperturbed.

"Yes, yes," Ollivander said, "You, Mr. Tenton, seem to look much like your father, but you speak like your mother, straight to the point, yet not too harshly. Miss Casey, she has her father's eyes, but other than that she has her mother's long, red hair and can be, at some times, rather quiet."

My face burned. Ollivander looked from me to Zach and back again after saying, "Shall we begin?"

We nodded our heads.

"Alright, then," Ollivander said with a smile on his face, "Hold out your wand arm, whichever one you think you'll be using."

Zach and I lifted our right arms.

Ollivander began measuring us from toes to heel, heel to knee, knee to waist, and so on while he began to tell us about wands and looking through wand cases. "Each wand core is unique, you know, just like you and I are unique or like one unicorn is unique compared to all others. All of the people who study wandlore have found that the wand chooses the wizard, which would explain the reason to why you would never do as good of a job with using another wizards wand. I mainly use three different types of wand cores: unicorn hair, dragon heartstring, and phoenix feather... That's enough of the measuring."

The tape measure fell back onto the desk as Ollivander came back to us with two wand cases in his hands. He put them on the desk.

"Try one out and give it a bit of a swish," Ollivander instructed, "and if the outcome is good, the wand is yours, and vise versa."

I took the wand case that was in front of Zach and opened it up. Inside there was a yellowish-white wand. I picked it up.

"Beechwood, unicorn hair, eleven and a half inches," Ollivander told me.

I gave it a flick. Several wand boxes came crashing to the ground. Ollivander took the wand out of my hand and gave it to Zach to try. He gave it a flick and my glasses went zooming across the room. Taken by surprise, I instinctively grabbed Zach's arm. I was basically blind. Everything was so blurry I couldn't tell Zach from Ollivander or wand box from book.

"Sorry!" I heard Zach say as a blurry figure moved around in front of me.

_"Accio glasses!" _I heard Ollivander mutter. A few minutes later, someone put my glasses back on my face. I blinked a few times to get my eyes readjusted to the sharpness.

"Definitely not that wand," Ollivander said. He continued to give us wands to try out and we continued to cause mayhem in his store. As we swished and flicked wands, multiple things would come crashing to the ground, or a flying candle would fall from the second story, or a chair would be flung across the room. Even though his things began to break apart, he would be as jovial as he was when we walked through the door, saying "I can fix that later," whenever anything broke. He became more ecstatic the longer we went.

Then he stopped abruptly at one row of wands. He walked back over to Zach and I with two wands in his hands. "Yew, fourteen inches, phoenix feather for Miss Casey," he said, handing me one of the boxes and the other to Zach, "A holly, thirteen and a half inches, dragon heartstring for Mr. Tenton. Would you care to go first Miss Casey?"

"Sure," I said. I took out the wand, which was black and etched intricately in white, and swished it horizontally back and forth. Fiery red sparks came out from the tip of the wand. Zach took the wand that was inside of the case Ollivander gave him and swished it around. A line of fire was stuck in the air.

"How interesting..." Ollivander muttered.

"Sorry," Zach said, "but what's interesting?"

"I was just thinking about how interesting it is for you two to have gotten _those _wands," Ollivander said, "Those wands have been in my possession for quite a long time, even before you were born, and no one has shown even the slightest bit of possibly being the master of those wands. It's interesting how they just happen to finally find their masters now, after many years of pronouncing that they weren't to be handled under just anyone's care."

"What do you mean 'pronouncing that they weren't to be handled under just anyone's care'?" I wondered.

Ollivander pointed to the crumpled arm chair in the corner. "_That_ is miniscule compared to what those wands have done when others have tried them out," Ollivander said, "One time, they made almost a whole entire column of wands come crashing down. Yet, I must say that someone warned me that that might happen."

I noticed Toorane's eyes narrow at this comment.

"Someone told you that things like that would happen?" Zach asked.

"A girl, only a few years older than you two, maybe fourteen or fifteen, came in here when I was only a wee lad. She told me that those wands were destined to go to you two, and no one else."

"What did she look like?"

"That's the thing. I never could remember. She came in here, all worried like and everything, asking for a quill and paper. Of course, I gave her the quill and paper and she began writing something down. She was a quick writer, done in nearly a minute, she was. Well, then she walked up to me and handed me the paper, though I lost it a few years later. She was in and out of the shop in a matter of minutes, it's all a blur to me now."

Silence fell over us. I didn't know what the others were thinking, but I had a feeling that Ollivander wasn't telling the whole story.

After a moment, we payed for our wands and headed out the door. We went through the crowds in Diagon Alley, noticing how it was already well passed noon. We were soon walking through the Leaky Cauldron, where we were only greeted by Stanley Corvan, the bartender. We walked down the sidewalk, got a few tickets, and boarded a Muggle bus that would take us back to the orphanage. The whole time we did this I had my hand in my pocket, so no one would see my scar. I had a window seat, so I looked outside it. I hadn't talked much on our way back; I was too busy mulling everything over in my head.

"Are you alright, Chloe?" Zach asked, "You haven't been this quiet since, well, to be honest, never."

I shrugged, but said nothing.

Both of them were looking at me, expecting more. I sighed and sat back in my seat.

"I'm just glad to be getting back to the orphanage for the day, it's been quite long, don't you think?" I said. When they continued to stare at me, I continued. "Everyone in the Wizarding world knows our name and... I don't know, maybe it's just a bit of the pressure unveiling itself. I've never been one for crowds, you know."

They seemed a bit nervous, but didn't say anything else.

. . . . . .

**A/N:**

Chloe's wand: Yew, fourteen inches, phoenix feather. Going along with the wand lore of Harry Potter, yew wands tend to fit people who are well known (and not always in a good way) as well as people who have unusual tendencies. Yew wands are also known for being the most "evil" kind of wood. After all, Lord Voldemort's original wand was yew. And that wand had the proclivity to make magnificently harmful curses and overall powerful spells. However, while those who do not know a whole lot about wand lore think everyone who has yew wands are acclimated towards the Dark Arts, yew wands have been seen in many heroes' hands as well as villains. Also, a note about phoenix's... They tend to be very "independent and detached to the world." Due to the years of harassment to Chloe in the orphanage, she is _very _independent and tends to keep everyone at an arms distance. Just look at how she never told anyone she had a photographic memory. Not even Madam Kate, the only adult in the orphanage to show sympathy to Chloe, knew about her being able to remember the day her parents were murdered.

Zach's wand: Holly, thirteen and a half inches, dragon heartstring. Holly is popular due to being the wood of Harry Potter himself. Holly wands are often associated with dangerous quests and people who are trying to "overcome anger and impetuosity." (Direct quote from Harry Potter Wikia, if you want to know) J. K. Rowling also said that wand lengths that are relatively short tend to go to people "lacking personality" and, therefore, the longer the wand, the bigger the personality. However... There's a reason you should think twice about this meaning Zach is really a great guy; Lord Voldemort's wand was thirteen and a half inches. Moving away from Voldemort, dragon wands learn things very quickly and produce powerful magic. They're also the easiest to turn to the Dark Arts, prone to accidents, and are said to be lethal with cherry or yew wood. I'm going to guess that being around cherry or yew wood can also have said lethal be inflicted on the wood. And Zach's wand just so happened to be sitting on a shelf, right next to Chloe's for _years._


	3. Attacks

Chapter 3

Toorane walked us back to the door of our orphanage when the train stopped nearby. When Zach and I crept back inside the orphanage, we found the place dark; everyone was asleep already. We said a blunt goodnight to each other and walked back to our rooms. I put my Hogwarts things next to my bed and soon went to sleep.

The next day brought an owl to my windowsill. I opened the window and the owl fluttered in. Once it was inside, I noticed that it had a folded up piece of parchment on its leg and took it off the owl. He took flight once more, leaving through the window. I unfolded the parchment and found a letter addressed to Zach and I from Toorane. I read through it before going out into the hall to find Zach. I tracked him down and saw him sitting next to the fire with Max and Marvin Colt next to him – you know, the two kids who hate my guts more than I hate Zach. I took a deep breath and walked over to them.

"What do you want?" Marvin asked when he saw me.

"Zach, I need to talk to you," I forced myself to say.

"About?" he drawled.

"School," I hissed, glancing at Marvin for barely half a second.

"Did you already read it?" Zach tossed a ball into the air and caught it again.

"Yes," I said, "Now, please, can I just talk to you in private?"

"If it's about Hogwarts, let all of us hear about it," Max said.

I glared at him for a moment and then turned back to Zach. "Here." I tossed him the envelope.

"Hmm," he said, reading through it, "Toorane's coming... King's Cross... Tickets for the Hogwarts Express. Alright."

He threw the envelope at me and looked back at the television. I caught the note and walked away, hearing Max and Marvin smirking at me.

I just went back to my room and looked at the stuff I had gotten for Hogwarts, ignoring how fast my heart was beating. I had moved all of my old books under my bed and had put my books for school on my desk. I flipped through one of them, finding a page on dementors. The picture was of a grotesque, wraith-like, humanoid floating above the ground. Like most of the wizarding world's pictures, this one moved. It looked a bit creepy and made my head pound just to look at, so I turned the page. This page was about dragons. Skinny dragons, thick dragons, blue, purple, black, white, polka-dotted dragons – any kind of dragon you could imagine. There was a knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" I called, sitting up. My wand rolled off my lap and I crouched down to grab it. I glanced something on the bottom of it and looked at it carefully. It seemed to be some sort of symbol. It looked like a box with the top line extending a few centimeters to the left. On the inside of the box was a line running diagonally from the top right to the bottom left, and from the bottom right to the middle of the line extended another.

"It's me," someone said from the other side of my door. I put my wand away and glared at Zach through the door.

"I thought I said to leave me alone," I shouted.

"I have a question that I believe only you can answer," he replied nonchalantly, "It's been nagging at me for a while."

"What question?" I sighed.

I walked over to the door and opened it up. Max and Marvin were standing next to him. I glared at each of them in turn.

"Where's your key now?" Zach asked innocently, "I've noticed you've changed its hiding place."

I threw my head back, laughing. "You think I'd actually tell you?" I struggled to get my breathing under control. "That's a good one, I must admit. But I'm not going to tell you."

He pouted. "You aren't even going to let me try finding it?"

"Zachary, you already _are_ trying to find it," I said, "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to slam this door in your faces."

I shut the door as they all tried saying something.

. . . . . .

I waited in my room for the next few days, trying to make sure I wasn't chased by the Populars again. Of course, I still had to eat, so I couldn't avoid getting cornered after an early breakfast on September first, the day I would be going to school. Zach wasn't with them, but Marvin and Max were surrounded by two or three others.

I cautiously edged towards the door leading outside, though the group obviously knew what I was doing. They followed, smirking at each other. I had my wand on me, but I doubted I could do so much as make a plate levitate. And they'd probably break down my door by the way they glared at me so maliciously, so running back to my room was out of the question.

"What? Are you scared?" Marvin taunted.

Yes, I told myself. I'm terrified. At the very least, Zach _tried _not to kill me.

I grabbed the door's handle and pulled open the door as I ran as fast as I could. At the fence, I fumbled with the bolt until the gate swung open. I ran towards the forest.

The sun was barely even on the edge of the horizon when I sped passed the first tree. The forest was still a bit dark, but light was starting to flood through the leaves with every step I took. I knew that the Populars knew the way to the creek pretty well, but I still ran as fast my legs could towards that creek.

Something hit the back of my knee and I fell onto the ground, smacking my face on a fallen tree. I scrambled to get to my feet, but someone put their foot on my back and pressed down – hard. My face hit the tree again. The bark dug into my skin, cutting open my cheek while my eyesight faded in and out.

The Populars were all laughing, like usual.

"Got her!" Max announced.

"No way," his brother sneered, "Now, let her go and we can have another round."

Max lifted his foot off of me and I took in a gulp of air. I shakily lifted myself up to my knees. My hands shook from the adrenaline that was fading away.

"Give her a few seconds," Marvin instructed.

"I'm not going to be your little dog and just do whatever you say," I snarled.

He prodded my side and I instantly retaliated, grabbing his ankle and pulling his foot out from under him. He hit the ground with a dark thud, right before one of the others pulled me by my hair and dragged me to my feet. I fought with whoever it was, cursing my short stature. I mean, I would have been fine being only four foot five, had the kids at Wool's Orphanage not been five feet and above. I was thrown against a tree.

"You little-" Marvin growled.

My courage wavered at the look on his face and I ran as fast as I could to get out of the woods. A few seconds later, they started running after me, competing on who would get me as if I was a prized buck and they wanted me on their trophy wall.

I guess I hadn't ran all that far when I had fallen down, because within a minute or two, the orphanage came into view. The gate was still open, so I just slipped right inside and ran up to the door. When I got inside, I ran into someone with honey-blonde hair. I tried skirting around them, but he grabbed my arm. I averted my eyes.

"Chloe?" I recognized Professor Toorane's voice. He lifted my chin to look me in the eyes. "What happened to your face?"

The door opened, almost as if in response, and I flinched back behind Professor Toorane. Marvin's smile faded when he saw who he was looking at. The professor brought me out from behind him, but kept a protective arm around my shoulders. I fidgeted under the threatening gaze of the Populars. I only tensed when Professor Toorane tightened his grip on me.

"Did you do this to Chloe?" Headmaster Toorane asked.

"She tripped," he said immediately.

"And hit her face on a log," Max supplied.

He looked at them suspiciously. "I am warning you all now, before you get to Hogwarts, that roughhousing is strictly forbidden. Move along, now."

They skittered off down one of the halls. Professor Toorane sighed and pulled me into a chair. He carefully looked at the bruise on my face.

"What happened?" he asked.

"They were trying to corner me and I ran out of the orphanage," I said.

"And then?" he continued.

"They chased me through the woods and tripped me."

Professor Toorane motioned to continue.

"I fell and hit my face on a log and when I tried getting up, Max pushed me back down."

"And you hit your face again?"

I nodded hesitantly.

He pulled out his wand. I looked at it apprehensively.

"What are you doing with that?" I asked.

"I know a spell that can heal bruises and things like that," he explained, "Just hold still and I'll be able to heal your face."

I shifted anxiously as he pointed his wand at my face, but held still.

"_Parvare_," Professor Toorane whispered.

I flinched when a feeling of coolness skimmed my cheek, but relaxed when I felt the throb in my face lessen. I tentatively tapped my cheek. No pain. I nervously smiled at the Headmaster.

"Th-Thanks," I said.

He gave me a sad look. "Why did they attack you, Chloe?"

I looked away from him. Why did _he _want to know?

"I'm not going to hurt you."

I still said nothing.

"I'm a friend of your mom and dad, you know." He had a sincere look on his face when I looked up. "They were better people than most would credit them for."

"How...?" I looked at my hands, swallowing roughly. "I have _epilepsy._"

Professor Toorane looked slightly confused.

"I'm... different, even in the Wizarding World." I pressed my lips together in an effort to keep them from trembling. "And I'm shorter than they are. They never knew I had a photographic memory, so when I knew everything..."

"I understand." He paused. "Hogwarts is different. Like I said, bullying isn't allowed there. If you would like, you can stay during Christmas, but you will have to come back here for the summer."

I nodded and then frowned. "Why are you here?"

"I came to pick you and Zachary up, like I said in that note I sent you," he answered, "You don't mind going through the subway again, do you?"

"She minds," came a voice at the other side of the room, "Once a claustrophobe, always a claustrophobe."

Zach came over to us. I glared at him for a moment, and then looked away. How long had he been listening in on me?

"Heard about what happened," Zach said, "You alright?"

"As if you care," I hissed.

He put his hands up. "I'm just wondering."

I exhaled. "When are we leave, Professor?"

"As soon as you two are ready, I suppose," Professor Toorane told me, looking a bit troubled.

I stood up. "I'll get my stuff, then."

. . . . . .

Within the next thirty minutes, we were at King's Cross Station. I had been glad for the breathable air when we got out of the subway, but as soon as I saw the station, I wanted to crawl back onto the train and get to the orphanage as fast as possible. Thankfully, Professor Toorane postponed me having to walk through the crowd and gave us our tickets.

"Find platform nine and ten," he instructed, "There will be a family of redheads near the two columns there and they will show you what to do. And Zach?" The Professor looked at him sternly. "_Please_ make sure Chloe does not try running away."

"Where are you going?" I asked blandly.

"I need to get to Hogwarts before you all," he said simply, "I trust you to get on the train safely."

Trust. I hated the word. I had ever since I was three. I remembered all the times people I knew had been double crossed and wondered how people still trusted each other with delicate matters. Professor Toorane stepped back, bringing me down to earth once more.

"Be safe," he said.

"Okay," Zach called back to him as he continued walking away. Zach grabbed my arm and forced me to walk towards the crowd. I fought with him very little; I was already subdued from going through the subway.

After a few moments, Zach stopped next to a group of redheads. Another second or so later, I realized that I had seen one of them before: a tall, lanky boy with freckles over his nose, stood awkwardly next to an older sibling. He had to have been the boy from Nancy's Robing Shop back in Diagon Alley. Zach tapped the arm of a lady who was standing nearby.

"Er, excuse me, but we were told to come over here," he said, "You know, by Professor Toorane."

She turned around and looked at us. "You're the first years I'm supposed to take over to platform nine and three quarters?"

"That's what he told us," Zach answered.

"Alright, then," the lady said, "It's fairly simple; it's been the same way for thousands of years. All you have to do is run at the column in between platform nine and ten."

This seemed crazy, but what should I expect in a wizarding world? Zach and I shifted uncertainly.

"I'll show them how!" the older boy enthusiastically volunteered.

Their guardian looked at him suspiciously, but eventually said, "Go on, but don't do anything crazy on the other side."

"Relax," he said, "It's not as if there's Weasley's Wizard Wheezes on the other side of the barrier. And all of my friends would be on the train by now, anyways-"

"Oh, just go," the lady sighed.

With a smile on his face, he ran at the column. All of a sudden, he wasn't there. My eyes widened.

"How...?" I asked.

"Magic," the boy said next to me. He was smiling as if he had been waiting for this his whole life. "If you go fast enough, you'll go from here to platform nine and three quarters in an instant. Almost like Apparating."

"Apparating?" Zach questioned.

"It's a long story," he told him.

"A long story you'll have to tell later," the lady said, "You three should go on before me. I'll meet up with you, Eli, when your uncle gets here." She pulled the boy, Zach, and I into a line. "Remember not to stop. Now, go!"

Eli ran forwards, and, even though I wasn't sure about this working, I ran after him. Zach followed. I shut my eyes as we neared the column, readying myself for impact, but it never came. When I opened my eyes I found myself in a completely different place.

The first thing I noticed: trash. Paper and candy wrappers and bottles with weird names on them littered the ground, crunching under people's feet while they hurried to the train. The train was a whole entire other thing. A scarlet steam engine train was rusting and the paint was flaking off. Black smog ran out of its top, making a few people cough and cover their mouths with their shirts. It looked like it would never run again and yet people were boarding the train. A large sign hung in front of Zach and I that read _Ho-wa-t- -xp-e-, -a-fo-m Ni-e an- Thre- Q-a-te-s. _Zach nudged my elbow.

"Do you know what that sign says?"

I glanced at him. "Why?"

"I'm a curious guy, Chloe. And I like satisfying my curiosity." He gave me a grin. "For old time's sake?"

I opened my mouth, thought better of it, and shook my head. "For old time's sake, figure it out yourself. I'm not here to cheat for you anymore."

I pulled my trunk toward the train without letting him say another word. For a moment, I looked around, trying to find out where Eli had gone to. Mentally shrugging, I lifted my things into the locomotive. Zach, annoying as the boy was, followed me as I looked for a compartment to stay in for the ride to Hogwarts. He tapped my shoulder.

"What _is _it?" I snapped.

"Look, there's Eli," he said, unperturbed by my offensive tone.

I practically thanked God for getting that idiot away from me.

Looking around the train, I saw that people were saying hello to their olds friends and hanging around the hall. Someone was pranking someone else further down the aisle; I recognized Eli's brother. He was almost as short as Eli, and was laughing loudly as his curly haired friend's tongue lolled out of his mouth.

"Dis idn'd funny, Tyder!" the young teen said, "I can'd feel my dong!"

I shook my head as I continued walking down the aisle, searching for somewhere to sit. The teen, Tyler, I guessed his name was, pulled a small candy out of his pocket and handed it to his friend.

"Here, Soonack," he said, trying to stop laughing, "That should fix your tongue."

The boy popped the candy into his mouth and attempted to chew it. He regained movement of his tongue within a minute or two. I still hadn't found a compartment to stay in for the ride to Hogwarts when Tyler saw me. He waved at me. I tentatively waved back.

"Who's that?" Soonack asked.

"The Headmaster sent her to us in order to find out how to get to Platform Nine and Three Quarters," Tyler explained, "I think she's Chloe Casey."

I tried not looking at him as I continued looking for a place to sit. How had he found out? I barely even talked at all when I was near him.

"What makes you think that?" his friend posed, "She's probably just another first year student."

"The Headmaster specifically wants her to be escorted to the Hogwarts Express by us," Tyler argued, "_And_ she looks just like Eli and I."

"I doubt it," Soonack said.

"I'm gonna ask her."

"Tyler, really, she isn't-"

"Yes, I am," I said from next to him.

Both of them jumped. They had been so engrossed in their conversation to have noticed me coming.

"Your name-" Tyler began.

"Is Chloe Casey," I finished.

Tyler grinned and looked at my arm. "I hear you have a scar on your arm or something."

I pursed my lips. "True. Exactly how much does everyone know about me?"

Soonack blinked at me. "Well, we know that your first house burned down and you were sent to an orphanage."

"And that you have no idea about everything in the magical world," Tyler added.

"And that your mother was a Diviner," someone sneered behind me.

I turned around slowly. A girl with leering violet eyes looked down at me behind curls of midnight black. She was several inches taller than me, but I wasn't intimidated by her.

"And just who do I have the pleasure of meeting?" I said frostily.

"Catherine Shawnay," she told me, "You have nerve coming on this train, Siblynwitch."

My face twitched. "What did you call me?"

"Siblynwitch," she said easily, "You know, the term for all children of Diviners."

"You little-" I snarled, taking one step forwards. Tyler caught my arms before I could even raise my fists. Catherine tutted in disapproval.

"You don't know what you've gotten yourself into," she told me, "Watch your back."

She walked off. I managed to shrug off Tyler.

"Who, exactly, was that?" I hissed.

"Catherine Shawnay," Soonack said, "You didn't hear it from me, but their family is dangerous."

"...You want to sit with us?" Tyler asked, probably to change the topic.

"I'll find a seat," I told him, and continued going through the aisle. The train's whistle blew and the engine creaked to a start. The sound was a bit concerning, but no one else seemed to be all too worried about the train not working. We pulled out of the station and really started moving moments later. I looked into another compartment, seeing Eli sitting in one of the seats. I knocked on the sliding door and poked my head inside.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" I asked, "Everywhere else is full."

"Come on in," Eli said.

I sat down across from him after putting my things in the top of the compartment. For a moment, there was an awkward silence.

"What's your name again?" he asked.

"Chloe," I told him.

"Chloe _Casey?_"

I held his gaze. "Yes. How did you know?"

"Well, I'm part of the Weasley family. We have inherited almost everything from Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, so there's a good chance I'm descended from them. And a few people say the Casey family was descended from Harry Potter, who married Ron's sister. That would make us distant cousins."

I raised an eyebrow. "I'm a cousin of yours?"

"It's hypothetical," he said quickly. Shrugged. "Like I said, a few people have been speculating you're from the line of Harry Potter, but, then again, it's only speculation."

I narrowed my eyes on him. He was most definitely smarter than he looked. "I've read a bit about Harry Potter. He killed off this infamous bad guy almost a thousand years ago or something, right?"

Eli nodded his head. "Lord Voldemort. Even the Muggles could tell that something bad was going on. I mean, there were frequent disappearances and people from both sides were getting killed-"

"Both sides?"

"Muggle and wizard."

I nodded. "Harry's parents were killed when he was one, right?"

"I believe so. I mean, that's what the history books say." He gave me a funny look. "You aren't one of those people who are all morbid, are you?"

A shaky laugh escaped my lips. "Oh, no. I was just thinking... Never mind. It's impossible."

"What's impossible?"

I debated with whether or not to start talking about the nowadays most wanted wizard and decided against it. "It's nothing. I usually start thinking up a lot of different things. Most people get confused about my line of thought."

He nodded. "I can relate there."

My eyes widened. "You can?"

"Oh, trust me," he said, laughing a bit, "Not many people in my family are bookworms."

"You like books?"

"Well, at the very least, more than anyone else in my family."

I nodded again, a hint of a smile on my face. I stared out of the window for another moment. Trees were zooming passed the train and pastures filled with animals winked by in a matter of seconds.

"Do you know where Wool's Orphanage is?" I wondered.

"Yeah, it's near the Snowyarc, right?" he said.

"Yeah. That's where Zachary and I have been staying since our parent's deaths. I feel like I've seen you there before, maybe I heard your name or something."

"Maybe your thinking of the day my parents died," Eli said solemnly, "Our house burned down and we were brought to an orphanage before our aunt and uncle came and picked us up."

Again, I nodded. It would make sense that I hadn't immediately figured out that Eli was the little toddler being held by a four year old redhead.

For a moment we sat in an awkward silence.

"What do you usually talk about with your friends?" Eli wondered.

I did my best not to look depressed. "I... don't have friends."

He gaped at me. "The most famous girl in the world, not having friends?" He suddenly looked resolute. "_I'll_ be your friend. It'll be just like with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Together until the end."

I smiled at him and we shook hands. "Thanks. No one's ever even remotely said anything like that."

"Not even Zachary Tenton?" he asked.

"Don't even get me started on Zachary Tenton," I muttered.

"At least I'm _trying_ to turn over a new leaf," said a voice near the door.

"Hey, Zach." I forced a smile on my face. "Did you know I'm related to one of the most popular wizards known to wizarding kind? And Eli is, too."

"Really?" He sat down next to me. "Am I related to a popular guy?"

"No, you're just a regular kid."

Eli glanced between us. "That's actually not completely true."

"Really?" Zach brightened. "Who?"

He winced. "Um... I don't know if you're going to like this."

"Who is it?" I said, jumping on the chance to make Zach feel as bad as possible. I _did _tell him once that everything he did was going to come back to haunt him.

"Most people believe that the Tenton family is related to the Malfoys. Notorious for being a family of Death Eaters."

"Death Eaters?" Zach repeated.

I scooted away from him. "They're Voldemort's henchmen. Voldemort as in the most dangerous criminal wizard in the whole world." I shuddered. "Voldemort, and his Death Eaters, tried killing both Eli and my ancestors. _No_ _wonder _I never got along with you."

Zach was gaping at Eli. "Are – Are you sure about that?"

"It's just speculation," he told him, "Like how Chloe and I are descendants of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley."

"Wait," he said, "_The_ Harry Potter and Ron Weasley?"

"Yes," I snapped, "Why do want to know? In fact, _how _do you know them?"

"Well, I don't _know _them, know them. I've only-"

"Will you _stop _making fun of that!?" I put my head in my hands, trying to keep the blush from climbing up my neck. "That was _once, _I've only done that _once._"

"Done what once?" Eli demanded.

"She takes everything literally," Zach said, "and, therefore, if she was asked how she knew Harry Potter and Ron Weasley-"

"She'd say that she didn't know them face to face." He nodded. "Is there a reason Chloe doesn't like you?"

"Yes," I said, "At the orphanage we live at, he torments me everyday."

"Torment?" He glanced between us. "What does that mean?"

I started to reply, but Zach got there before me. "It started with some other kids-" He shook his head. "Look, Eli, the kids at my orphanage don't treat Chloe all too well, and as soon as I realized I didn't want to be beaten up, I started distancing myself from her."

I frowned in disbelief. Zach was actually _telling _someone about what really happened, a watered down version, yes, but what happened all the same. Eli was wide eyed.

"I made a mistake," Zach continued, "I should've helped Chloe, but I got scared and let her handle everything alone. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I got defensive each time it was brought up. From there, everything went downhill."

I looked out of the window instead of at Zach. Why would he choose _now _to tell the truth? Unless he was subtly trying to make himself look better than he actually was. In which case I wouldn't be able to do a thing about it; he had a tongue made out of pure silver.

"We haven't seen eye to eye on anything for five years."

I didn't look at either of them or say anything, but Eli took what Zach said as the whole truth.

"So, your feud got worse and worse and neither of you tried to fix it?" he summed up.

"I'm _trying _to work on it, but Chloe hasn't been-"

"The last time you said we should be friends, you lied to me. You got your little gang together, set up an ambush for me, and threw eggs at me. What's making you try to be my friend this time?"

"Chloe-"

"Honestly, that was a rhetorical question."

"It didn't _sound _rhetorical-"

"Guys," Eli interrupted. We turned to stare at him. "Please don't fight. I hate fighting."

We were silent. I stared out the window.

"When we met in Diagon Alley," Zach suddenly said, "you said something about Gryffindor and Slytherin. Who exactly are they?"

"Who _and_ what," Eli corrected, "Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff were the founders of Hogwarts, but they are also known as the house names. The Sorting Hat puts you into different houses: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. Gryffindors are brave and adventurous; Slytherins are ambitious and cunning; Ravenclaws are smart and wise; Hufflepuffs are loyal and patient. No one knows for certain which house they will be in until the Hat sorts you. Like with Hermione; everyone thought she would be in Ravenclaw, she was so smart, but she got into Gryffindor instead."

"And a hat does all that?" Zach said skeptically.

"We _do _live in a world of magic," he replied.

"Where do you think we'll go?" I wondered.

He shrugged. "Like I said, no one really knows. I want to be in Gryffindor, it's where most people who fought against Voldemort were in."

"Voldemort?" Zach asked, "Who's that?"

"I already told you, Zachary. He was one of the most evil Dark wizards known to all mankind," I muttered, "Even Muggles feared him, though they didn't know his name."

"Wait, was he the one that was called Snake Face or something?" he wondered.

I stared at him for a moment. "The Snake, yes. His appearance was very serpentine, especially his face."

"I thought you didn't know much about the real world?" Eli said.

"I've read the history book," I explained, shivering, "And Harry Potter managed to defeat Voldemort, so it was all over the book."

"Do you always read every-" Zach began, but the train suddenly jerked and threw all of us out of our seats.

We scrambled to get up and looked out of the compartment. Other people were doing the same thing. Everyone was whispering to each other and asking about what was going on.

"What's going on?"

"What's the hold up?"

"Why'd we stop?"

"We can't be there yet, can we?"

"I've never seen the train jerk like that before..."

Suddenly, a voice, a gruff voice, much different compared to the other students' voices, shouted, "Where are they? Where are Casey, Weasley, and Tenton?"

We pulled back into the compartment. Eli started routing through his bag.

"Why is someone on the train, looking for us, and causing this much commotion?" I asked, frantic to get an answer, "And what are you doing, Eli?"

Our compartment door flung open, but no one was behind it. I scrambled away from it, as if the guy that had been talking was standing behind it.

"I have the Defense Against the Dark Arts book in my bags," he said, "It has a bunch of spells in it. I think it can help." He pulled a book out of his trunk. "Here it is! Thank goodness I put it on the top."

Zach peered over Eli's shoulder as he opened the book.

"Hey, ugly!" someone shouted out in the corridor, "You looking for me?"

The book fell out of Eli's hands. Zach immediately grabbed his arm and stopped him from running out of the compartment.

"That's my brother!" Eli hissed, "I need to help him!"

"By doing what?" Zach replied, "We don't know _how_ to help him."

I grabbed the book and continued flipping through it. There had to be _something _we could do. I wasn't about to just let some evil guy kidnap me, or Zach and Eli and his brother for that matter. There had to've been some sort of spell to help. And I was pretty sure I had read up on something about invisibility...

"Guys, hold each other's hands," I said.

"Er, Chloe... Why?" Zach asked.

"I think I know a spell that could help us," I told him, "But we need to be touching."

Uncertainly, we grabbed hands. Feeling a bit foolish, I took out my wand and muttered, _"Celare!"_

Nothing seemed to happen, but I felt a fuzzy sensation start up in the pit of my stomach. I hoped that it wasn't just me being freaked out. Then three men passed our compartment. One of them looked at us – _directly at us – _but they walked on. Zach released Eli's and my wrists.

"What was that spell supposed to do?" he whispered.

"Hide us," I replied.

"Pretty useful spell," Eli said.

I nodded and stood up, quietly making my way to the door. Zach grabbed my arm.

"You can't go out there," he muttered.

"Shut up," I ordered, "And I know what I'm doing."

Prying his hand off of me, I tiptoed into the hall. No one else besides the three men, Tyler, and I were in the hall. The people in the compartment across from me shook their heads. I ignored them, though, and raised my wand in the direction of the men.

_"Stupefy," _I whispered.

A green jet of light bounced from my wand to one of the men. He crumpled to the ground and the others turned to me. I froze. Almost all of their faces were covered by their hoods and they both had wands in their hands. I stumbled backwards. What was I supposed to do now? One of them casted a spell and I jumped out of the way.

_"Stupefy!"_ I said.

Another jet of green came from my wand, but they blocked it with another spell.

"Hey! You stupid git! Over here!"

One of them turned, but not quick enough to dodge a spell that someone else had casted. The last man glared at the guy who had knocked out his friend and then at me. I guess he knew he was trapped, because he just twisted on the spot and vanished. I leaned against the wall.

The guy who had knocked out the second wizard rushed over to me. I saw that it was Tyler's friend, Soonack. "Are you alright?"

He nodded. "You?"

"I'm fine," I told him, walking back to the compartment where Zach and Eli still sat, shocked by the recent turn of events.


	4. The Hostilities

Chapter Four

"They were Followers," Tyler said grimly, "It's amazing anyone got through that."

I stared out of the window. I didn't really want to explain to the others how a spell from thousands of years ago had just popped into my head; I knew that saying one word about being a Diviner would get me killed.

"Followers, though?" Eli whimpered, "They're coming after us again?"

"Again?" Zach questioned, "What do you mean?"

"Zach," I said curtly, not taking my eyes off the glass, "why do you think our parents died? They were on the run."

"Yours even more so," he agreed, "Why was that, again?"

I clenched my fists. "My mum was a Diviner."

"And...?" he continued.

"Diviners are illegal," I seethed, swinging around to glare at him, "They were going to hang my mum and dad. And, most likely, me."

He gaped at me. "But... What's so bad about Diviners?"

Tyler looked at him with eyes the size of baseballs. "Dude, Diviners see the future and use what they see against all of mankind."

Zach shook his head. "That can't be..." He swerved his attention back to me. "Chloe, you-"

"No," I said immediately, "Zachary, I know what you're thinking, but-"

"Oh, come on, Chloe," he moaned, "Wouldn't you like to clear your parents' names if you could?"

His words just made me feel worse. Yes, I'd love to clear my parents' names, and all of the other Diviners in the world. But the Ministry of Magic, the government for all of the wizards, they'd never listen to me, a daughter of a Diviner. I looked away from him.

"It's simple. All you need to do is answer this one question: did they ever try-" Zach began.

"Shut up!" I shouted. Everyone jumped as I tried to keep myself from crying. "The Ministry of Magic and their laws against Diviners are so broad, there is no room for even the slightest loopholes! Nothing about this is simple! Even if they never said anything about harming anyone, no one would ever believe me. I'm the daughter of a _Diviner, _Zachary, they'd just call me biased!"

Blinking hard, I stared out of the window. The others shifted uncomfortably. At last, Tyler cleared his throat.

"Well, er, I've gotta go and see how Soonack is doing," he said, "His family was attacked a little while ago, so... See ya!"

He got up and left in a hurry.

"Sorry," Zach mumbled after he left, "I shouldn't've pressed you, Chloe."

I didn't look away from the glass.

* * *

After a long time of silence I saw a shadow looming outside in the darkness. I pointed it out to Eli and his eyes widened.

"That's Hogwarts!" he announced.

Zach began bouncing in his seat enthusiastically. Eli nearly laughed.

"What're you bouncing for?" he chuckled.

"He sometimes does this when he's anticipating something extremely good," I informed him, looking at Zach as if he'd grown another arm, "Actually, he _used _to do this. Years ago. He'll stop soon enough."

As if on cue, Zach stopped bouncing and asked, "What do you think Hogwarts will be like?"

"I don't know," Eli said slowly, "We're going to learn a bit about magic, that's for sure. Other than that, I don't know anyone else who is going to be at Hogwarts this year, for sure."

"Hopefully," I added, "nothing really bad happens this year."

"Kind of too late for that," Zach muttered.

The train screeched to a stop and all of us got up and walked out of the compartment. When we got off the train I heard Professor Lure's voice.

"First years this way!" he was shouting, "First years over here!"

We walked over to Professor Lure. With all the other first years, we walked over to a long lake with boats at a moor near the shoreline. I frowned at the small ships; a few of them looked like someone too heavy would put a hole in the wood of the boat. Speaking of wood... No one used wood for boats anymore. Not for almost two century.

"Three people per boat," Professor told us, "Grab a boat and wait for the others. Then we'll be on our way to Hogwarts."

Zach, Eli, and I got into the same boat and waited for about five minutes for everyone else to get in theirs. I heard Catherine behind me talking trash about some other student, a boy named Xantex. I was about to turn around and yell at her, when the boats lurched to a start and made my stomach churn. My nails dug into the wood of the boat.

"You alright, Chloe?" Zach asked.

"Oh, fine," I said sarcastically, "Just completely fine."

"Don't like boats?" Eli guessed.

"First time on one," I replied.

"Ah..." Eli nodded in understanding.

I tried to get my nausea under control. "How much do you know about Professor Lure?"

"Oh, um, not a whole bunch, just a few rumors," Eli told me.

"Don't bother indulging Chloe in her trust issues." Zach leaned back and trailed his hand in the water. "She likes having background information."

I elbowed him in the ribs, managing to catch his wrist before he splattered me with water. "Will you stop it? It's more than that, and you know it." Zach jerked his arm out of my grip.

"Well, if you must know," Eli said, "people are saying that he's Neville Longbottom's descendant. If you're wondering, Neville was one of Harry Potter's friends. He's got a son, too. Don't know his name, but he's just barely old enough to come to school this year."

"Just a few more minutes out!" Professor Lure called out.

I looked up at the giant castle. Frowned. "Hey, Eli? Why does it look like the school's been through a war?"

The two of them followed my gaze, staring at a gaping hole in the side of Hogwarts. "That would be because it _did _go through a war."

"When?" Zach asked.

"_Way_ back. Like, days of the Ancients back."

"Ancients?" I questioned.

"It's a term for Harry Potter and his generation." Eli shrugged. "The war that happened here was the one where Voldemort was killed."

I nodded as the boats hit the shore. Everyone stood up and followed Professor Lure up a few flights of stairs. While we walked into a hall and waited for the Sorting Ceremony to start, I noticed that a few people were starting to stare at me. Self-conscious, I stuffed my hand into my pocket. Eli nudged my arm.

"It's useless, you know," he told me.

I frowned uneasily. "What do you mean?"

"Hiding yourself in a crowd of wizards that already know your face," Eli said, "As soon as your name is called for the Sorting Ceremony, everyone will be-"

I shivered. "Okay, I get it. Crowds, lots of people, they'll be looking for me anyways."

Someone bumped into me and pushed me into Eli. When I straightened up, I saw Catherine's leering violet eyes as she sneered at me. Zach stared at her.

"Who is that?" he asked, though he had a dopey smile on his face.

"That's just another kid who hates me," I muttered.

"Oh." He didn't seem all too surprised.

After a while of standing in silence Professor Lure came back from the Great Hall of Hogwarts. As soon as he opened the door all chatting died.

"The Sorting is about to begin," he announced, "Everyone get into line."

The Great Hall was lit by candles that were floating in the air. And not just a few. There were over a thousand candles easy. They were floating over four tables where all the students sat, looking at the new arrivals and probably trying to find out which one was me. At the front of the room was another stretched out table where all the teachers sat. All of the tables were laden with golden goblets and plates. Right in front of all the teachers was a stool, and on that stool was a hat. It looked beaten up and had many patches criss-crossing it. One of the teachers got up and walked up next to the stool with a scroll in his hands. Professor Lure went and sat down at the table with the other teachers. I looked up at the ceiling.

"You know," I said, "the ceiling used to be bewitched to show the sky outside."

"How d'you know that?" Eli asked.

"I've read a few books," I said quickly.

The brim of the Hat suddenly ripped open to form a mouth, dragging away Eli's . The hat was soon singing:

_Hello I say to all my friends,_

_Who treat me like I'm new._

_But if you would look around me,_

_You'll find those of me very few.  
_

_But please, oh please, put me on!_

_I'll sort you here or there,_

_But in a few seconds I won't be gone,_

_So don't you at all beware.  
_

_I could put you in great Gryffindor,_

_Who are brave, have dare and nerve._

_How long can they be chivalrous for?_

_For one, I know what they deserve.  
_

_There too is merry Hufflepuff,_

_Who see the good in everyone._

_Where others see only now,_

_They feel the history's rerun.  
_

_Ravenclaws, they know the most,_

_but not everything is well._

_Perception can discern who lies,_

_Though only find the shell.  
_

_The Slytherins shall come silently,_

_Cunning leading to their guile._

_Achievement held above all else_

_With a blatant style.  
_

_With all else behind us,_

_I'll sort you fair and square._

_I'll put you into the right place._

_For you, I solemnly swear._

I shivered again. Something about those words made my skin crawl. I pulled my robes tighter around myself, feeling as if the temperature in the room had just dropped thirty degrees.

"Once your name is called," the man next to the Sorting Hat shouted, "you are to come up and place the Sorting Hat on your head."

_That must be the Deputy Headmaster, Montra Contare, _I thought.

Professor Contare began to call students.

"Acrone, Anna!"

A girl with long, curly, honey-blond hair got out of line and walked over to the Sorting Hat and put it on her head. It went over her eyes.

"RAVENCLAW!"

Everyone clapped, but the table on my direct right was clapping the loudest. Anna assumed the same as me and went over to the Ravenclaw table.

"Axeit, Connor!"

A boy with short black hair went up to the Hat.

"SLYTHERIN!"

The clapping was now halfheartedly made. Connor went to the table at the far right of the room.

"Baldor, Kelly!"

A girl with tangled, black hair trotted over to the Hat.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

She went over to the table at the far left.

"Blaise, Courtney!"

A girl with short, black hair with gold fringes walked to the Hat.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Brazon, Kellan!"

A stout, blond haired boy walked out of line.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

For the first time, the table to my direct left was the loudest. Kellan went over to them. Professor Contare stumbled over the next name.

"C-Casey, Chloe!"

For a moment, I froze. Only when Eli nudged my arm did I step out of line and began to walk towards the Sorting Hat. I heard whispering and muttering as I walked with my head down.

"Did I hear that correctly?"

"_The_ Chloe Casey?"

"So the _Corlin _chose to actually say something true for once? The first Syblin allowed in Hogwarts for over fifty years is finally here?"

My fists clenched, though the dozens of eyes on me left me pale and shaken. I sat down and pulled the Hat over my head. It dropped in front of my eyes. There was silence. Complete and utter silence. I could practically hear the Sorting Hat mulling over where to put me.

"Gryffindor."

The word was barely a whisper compared to the bellows from earlier, but I could hear a sigh of relief run through almost three quarters of the present students. Shakily, I pulled the Sorting Hat off of my head and walked toward the Gryffindor table. None of them were looking at me. None of them looked in the least _happy _that I had gotten into their House. I managed to find Tyler and sit next to him.

"What are you doing?" he hissed through the side of his mouth.

I glanced at him. "What?"

"Why are you _sitting next to me?_"

I bowed my head, words lost in my throat. All I had ever wanted was to be accepted. That want, that _wish _was one of the reasons I had befriended Zachary after our first falling out. Since then... Well, I haven't been too eager to leap into trusts, even with myself, when I thought that way. I jumped as names started to be called out again.

"Cayson, Darren!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Curtay, Elaine!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Forlo, Richard!"

"HUFFLEPUFF"

"Forson, Nicholas!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Haznove, William!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Jackson, Harold!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Lure, Xantex!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Morfin, Frank!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Noche, Sarah!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Pontale, Taylor!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Quinnston, William!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Saymere, Samuel!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Shawnay, Catherine!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Tenton, Zachary!"

More whispering filled the hall as Zach walked up to the Sorting Hat. He was more confident than I would ever be in front of such a crowd and was even smiling as the Hat drooped over his eyes. There was a short moment of silence.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the Hat finally said.

Everyone was clapping. Most of the Gryffindors were standing up. I slouched in my seat. Zach caught sight of me and walked over, high-fiving a few people as he went. He continued grinning as he sat down.

"Hey," he said, his usual grin smothering his face, "What's with all the doom and gloom?"

I glared at him, and halfheartedly looked away.

Zach shrugged, looking at the people surrounding us. "So you all know our names?"

"Both of yours and the Weasleys' names were mentioned in the last prophecy that was made," the kid in front of us explained, "'C and T and W' it said. And then your families were attacked and what do you know? Your three last names had the initials C, T, and W. It sort of became well known knowledge that you all were the Three Families."

"The Three Families?" he repeated.

"_Our_ three families," I said quietly, "Mine, yours, and the Weasleys were the families mentioned. And that's _three families_."

"Ah." He nodded. "Thanks for clearing that up."

Tyler cringed. "Keep your voice down."

I listened to more names being called. Daniel Vallen was Sorted into Gryffindor. Rivka Vellburrow was put into Slytherin. Jennifer Walish was put into Ravenclaw.

Contare called out, "Weasley, Eli!"

I watched as he moved up to the stool and put the Sorting Hat on his head. Neither Tyler nor I were surprised when the Hat shouted out, "GRYFFINDOR!"

I thought I saw a glum look on the students who weren't in my House. A few people were glancing at Eli a bit jealously, like they wanted some of the Three Families in their House. But whenever they glanced at Zach, and they saw me next to them, they'd either hurriedly look away or shake their heads. Eventually, I just leaned my forehead on my palm with my elbow on the table. Eli sat down next to his brother.

"Hey, Chloe." Zach nudged my arm. "What's up?"

"Nothing," I mumbled.

"Chloe-"

I shot him a glare. "_Look_ at the _people_ around us." He stared at the people at our table. "Not _here, _people in the _other_ Houses."

"Oh." He looked closer at the people's faces, getting a strangely too-concentrated look on his face. He looked back at me, an eyebrow raised. "Oh. People _really _don't like you here."

My gaze flicked back up at the front of the room. The last two people had been put into their Houses. Haley Zaltor got into Ravenclaw and Martin Zanfor was put into Hufflepuff.

Toorane stood up from his chair and everyone fell silent.

"Welcome," he said, "Welcome, all of you, to a new year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Our school caretaker, Reginald Warick, has asked me to tell you that a new list of the school rules has been posted on his office door. The major rules consist of wearing your uniform at all times, no entering faculty rooms without permission, and no wandering the halls after curfew. For those who are new around here, breaking any rule can cost your house points, which will later determine whether or not you win the House Cup. With that being said, enjoy the feast that is set before you."

Everyone turned back to the table. There were mounds of food everywhere. Roast beef, roast chicken, lamb chops, pork chops, potatoes, everything you could imagine being eaten at a banquet was piled high.

"So... what's this about a House Cup?" Zach asked.

"You don't know?" one of the Gryffindors asked.

"Chloe and I _have_ been living in a supposed Muggle orphanage for our whole lives," Zach said, stacking a bit of everything on his plate, "I think we've got reason to be a bit confused half the time we see something magical fly through the air."

"Oh," the same Gryffindor said, glancing at me, "Well, the House Cup is basically a competition between the Houses. The teachers can give points out and take away points throughout the year, to each House. At the end of the year, the points are tallied and the House with the most points, wins the House Cup."

"Ah." He paused deliberately. "How exactly do we get points again?"

Tyler shrugged. "Well, if you answer questions correctly, sometimes the teachers will give you points. In DADA, if you cast spells correctly, you sometimes get points. It depends on a lot of things."

"DADA?" Zach questioned.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," Eli said, "The supposed 'cursed' position of the school."

"...Cursed?"

"Back in the time of the Ancients," Tyler said, "the teachers kept on getting attacked. Even before them."

"Yeah." I recognized Soonack's voice. "In Harry Potter's first year, the teacher was killed; in his second year, the teacher went crazy; in his third year, the world found out the teacher was a werewolf and the hunts for him began; the next guy was impersonated by one of Voldemort's Death Eaters; the fifth one was attacked by a herd of centaurs; the sixth had his soul ripped apart after he murdered-"

"Severus Snape never _murdered _anyone," I mumbled.

They all stared at me. "What?"

"In Harry's sixth year, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was Severus Snape," I said, "He later _did _end Albus Dumbledore's life, but the Headmaster was _begging _for it. He was going to die anyway, so he got Snape to kill him in order to keep Draco Malfoy's soul intact. Dumbledore had it all set up so no one's soul would be harmed."

Tyler frowned at me. "How do you know that?"

"I read a lot," I told him, "and Zach and I were in Flourish and Blott's. I saw a book titled _The Years of Harry Potter _and skimmed through it."

"Skimmed?" Eli repeated.

"She has a photographic memory," Zach said, "It comes in handy when she needs to remember things."

"Severus Snape never murdered anyone," I mumbled once again.

"Oookay," Tyler said slowly.

There was silence. With the glances everyone was giving me, anyone would have thought that they were _seriously _considering that I was lying about how I knew about Snape. I shifted uncomfortably, but was spared the moment by someone tapping my shoulder. I looked over at a man wearing long blue robes. His hair was a messy abundance of shadows.

"Miss Casey? I'd like to ask you a few questions about what happened on the train."

I gulped. "Fine. I mean, yeah, of course."

A few people looked my way as I walked out of the Great Hall. The man was completely silent as we moved out of the room and into a silent hall. He turned and looked down at me.

"People were saying that you were using magic on the train to Hogwarts," he said, "Is that true?"

"Well, yeah." I shifted. "I mean, it was easy magic. And I had looked at the books we have before we got on the train. My memory's photographic, you see, so I could remember everything on the page."

He nodded his head thoughtfully. "I see. Do you have anything else that could help the Ministry-"

"You're from the Ministry?" I blurted out.

The man blinked. "Yes. Why?"

"No reason," I muttered, "I've just never met anyone from the Ministry of Magic."

He grinned. "Yeah, I bet it's a bit intimidating for someone like you."

I frowned. "What does that mean?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "It's just that you're the first daughter of a Diviner to be allowed into Hogwarts in over fifty years."

My scowl lightened. "You mean..." I swallowed roughly. "I don't have anything else to say. Can I go back and finish my dinner?"

"Go ahead." His smirk was almost elated by my reaction. "I won't stop you."

I backed away and turned into the Great Hall. Keeping my head down, I made my way back to my seat. I was the first Diviner in half a century to have come to Hogwarts? To be _allowed _in? What did that mean? That... that most people like me went into hiding? That they were so _scared _of what could possibly happen if _any _public attention came to them? Exhaling, I fell down next to Zach. He frowned at me, but said nothing. Like all the other people who were glancing at me funny.

Supper was soon over and the food was replaced with dessert. Ice cream was all over the place. Treacle tart, pies, chocolate eclairs, and doughnuts accompanied with it. Almost sooner than wanted, the banquet was over and we were all trundling up the stairs of the castle towards Gryffindor Tower, where our dormitories were and we could fall asleep. When we were confronted by a moving picture of the Fat Lady, we all stopped and waited for something to happen.

"I suppose you have the password?" the Lady asked.

"_Aureus the trium,_" the man in the front of the group said.

The portrait silently swung backward and we walked into a circular room filled with squashy armchairs and sofas. Tables and a large fireplace dominated one of the walls. On another wall, a bulletin was placed.

The Prefect lead us to two staircases and told us that the girls' dormitories were on the left, the boys' on the right. Everyone began filing forward and I was soon up in the first years' dormitory with Sarah Noche, Taylor Pontale, Kelly Baldor, and Courtney Blaise. We fell into our beds, barely glancing at the luggage that had been magicked up there. An odd nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach didn't let me sleep. It had to have been midnight when I suddenly realized what was wrong – everything was too much the same. Orphaned via masked predator. The Evader being beaten by someone _way _too young to have been able to win against her. Myself Being singled out.

It was all reminiscent of _Harry Potter._

The Boy Who Lived. The Chosen One.

My ancestor.

But why was everything happening so... similarly? Sure, there were a few differences, but it was almost as if someone had made it so that history seemed to repeat itself. _If _that was the case, who would be able to do that? Who would have the resources and time and _will _to make this happen?

The Evader.

A cold chill swept over me. It all made sense. The Followers on the train. They had been sent by the Evader. Because he wanted me for some sick plan of his.

I took a deep breath. It must be even later than I had thought. Even for me, those kinds of thoughts were pretty farfetched. I _really _needed to get some shuteye.


End file.
